General News of Saturday, 11 July 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

We won’t be intimidated by Kwahu Traditional Council – NDC bites back

The NDC has been banned by the Kwahu Traditional Council from conducting activities in the area The NDC has been banned by the Kwahu Traditional Council from conducting activities in the area

The opposition National Democratic Congress says it will not be cowed by reports of the Kwahu Traditional Council attempting to bar the party from conducting its political activities in the Kwahu area.

The Kwahu Council on Thursday, July 9, 2020, announced an indefinite ban on activities of the NDC within the Kwahu area, saying the party had exhibited acts of contempt towards their authority when some of its members were alleged to have invoked curses on supposed non-residents seeking to register in the ongoing nationwide voters registration exercise.

“We’ve realized that the NDC party within the Kwahu land does not respect the traditional authority. Consequently, we’ve banned NDC from any party activities in this area. We don’t want to see any NDC flag, poster in the territorial area of Kwahu,” the Linguist of the Kwahu Traditional Area, Nana Akouko Boateng announced.

The council also announced a ban on two radio stations in the area, Okwahu FM and Afram FM, reportedly owned by the NDC’s former Eastern Regional Secretary, Mark Oliver Kevor.

“We take a strong view of his conduct. You [Mark Oliver Kevor] were summoned before the Traditional Council but you refused to show up. You then go and sit on your radio stations which are located on Kwahu land and run us down. We order that the two stations belonging to Kevor – Okwahu FM and Afram FM – be closed by 12 pm today [Thursday]. If the stations continue to operate beyond the stipulated time, we’ll advise ourselves,” he said.

But reacting to this announcement on Citi Fm, the party’s Eastern Regional Communication Officer, Dallas Williams, indicated that the party did no wrong in their action and will therefore not be intimidated in any form by the Okwahu Traditional Council or their announcement.

“We do not want to drag issues with Nananom. We will not fall short in protecting our rights and we will not allow anybody to intimidate us. Nananom cannot just order for the closure of radio stations. That cannot be done.”

According to him, the council did not properly engage the party to find out their position before arriving at the decision.

He, however, called on the council to engage the party in ironing out all issues in order not to grow bad blood between the NDC and the owners of Kwahu land.