...Over Passage of ROPAB

From Joel Tano Badu Berekum B/A -- In less than one month, two Executive Members of the ruling NPP in the Berekum Contituency in the Brong Ahafo Region have to suffer from the decision by the government to pass the Representation of the People's Amendment Bill (ROPAB), into law when their houses were "shit bombed."by unidentified persons over the bill.

The situation has prompted the party's executives in the constituency to issue a 14 day ultimatum to the Police to cause the arrest of the faceless people who were the brain-behind the 'shit bombing of the houses of two leading members of the party.

The Sun gathered that on February 25, this year, an unidentified person stormed the house of Mr. A.K Boabeng a social commentator at Chris FM who was also the spokesman for the party in the constituency at dawn and threw a black polythene bag containing human excreta with a barrel containing water at his doorsteps. As if this shameful act was not enough, on Saturday March 5, the gangsters went on the rampage when they invaded the house of NPP Constituency Secretary Mr. Kofi Ohene Djan also another powerful spokesman for party and "shit bombed" his house. This time around several buckets filled with human excreta and deposited at his house.

Speaking to the Sun, Mr Stephen Kwaku Kamkam, the NPP Berekum constituency Chairman said that during the heat surrounding the passage of the Representation of the People's Amendment Bill (ROPAB), the press relations office at the constituency Mr. Justice Dapaah received serveral constant threats from unknown quaters during a radio programme on Shallom FM, a local radio station based at Berekum.

"He was warned that if the bill is passed he would be chased out of Berekum to another part of the country'' , Kamkam stated.

'' In fact we consider these carefully co-ordinated acts of provocations as delibrate attempt by some people in the costituency to create confusion and as a result we are appealing to the police to investigate and arrest this who were behind the diabolical act", "This was to attest to the persistent claim that, there would be mayhem in the country if the ROPAB is passed'' . He stressed. According to the Chairman, Berekum has been one of the peaceful constituencies in the country but some disgruntle people who did not want to see anything good about the NPP government want to create confussion in the area. He said that, the party has never conplaint about anything over the years but the frequent "shit bomb" attack cannot go without a protest, hence the ultimatum to the police to act on their complaint.

"It is on this foolish attitude that, we the Npp members in Berekum wish to give the police an ultimatum of 14 days starting right from monday 27, March, 2006 for the Police to complete their investigations and arrest those behind the ''shit bombing attack'' or we the NPP members in the constituency will stage a massive demonstration on Friday 14th April 2006 to seek redress," the chairman concluded.

On his part, Mr Justice Dapaah who happens to be one of the victims of the shit bombing saga, said that a similar situation occured in 1996 at the party's headquaters which created a lot of tension in the constituency. He stressed that, those faceless cowards who threw ''shit'' at night should amend their ways before it was too late.

"This painful act must be checked before it escalate,"he said. The Sun gathered that there has always been tension on the two FM stations, Chris FM and Shallom radio during newspaper review segment when callers are given the chance to contribute to the programme.