*His Gun Victim Paralyzed Days After Kumasi Peace Pact*

By Cecil Mensah

When the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, last week Tuesday, summoned all the key players in Friday’s presidential and parliamentary elections to a meeting in Kumasi, to append their signatures to a peace pact, little did he know that his own Member of Parliament (MP) and a nephew of ex-President John Kufuor, had already planned to spoil his noble quest for peace by almost killing a man.

Three days after the Ashantehene’s noble quest, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, alias Napo, led thugs fully armed with guns and machetes on a door-to-door campaign and nearly killed a 24-year-old National Democratic Congress (NDC) sympathizer, Mohammed Ziblim.

The young man, who was attacked with his sister Jamila Ziblim, is currently hospitalized at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Komfo Anorkye Teaching Hospital at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. There are reports that he is paralyzed and might not be able to walk again as a result of the gun wounds.

The gun and machete attack is largely seen as a huge blow to the Asantehene, more especially because Napo is not only the MP for Manhyia, but a grandson of the Asantehene, whose palace is within the Consituency.

Perhaps realizing the harm he has done to the Manhyia Palace, shortly after the bloody incident, the MP, rushed to the media – Daily Guide and Peace FM- with a misleading claim that he had been a victim of a gun attack.

However, the story changed as it emerged that he and his supporters were rather the assailants, and the gun used to shoot Mr. Ziblim, after which deep machete wounds were inflicted on him, belongs to him (the MP) What is interesting is that Napo has a presidential ambition. Friends of his say he is being groomed to be the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate by ex-President Kufuor, should the venture with Mr. Alan Kyeremateng botch.

From afar, Napo appears to be a gentleman but a closer look at him reveals his high propensity for violence. Sometime last year, one of his Constituency executives accused him of leading thugs to be beat him up at a meeting in Kumasi.

The man’s crime was that he had said that the Manhyia MP was failing the constituents of Manhyia. Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ashanti Regional Police Command, ASP Yussif Tanko, has confirmed that the MP was last Friday arrested and later released on bail.

He added that a caution statement was taken from the MP after which he was released on a GH¢30, 000 bail with one surety.

“We cannot take an investigation caution statement from a suspect without him first being arrested. So you have to be arrested before the caution statement is taken from you,” ASP Tanko noted.

On his part, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NDC has invoked the Antoa deity on leading members of the opposition New Patriotic Party, who intend fomenting trouble in the run-up to the December 7, polls.

Mr. Yaw Owusu Obimpeh asked the powerful deity in the Ashanti Region to kill the flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, the Manhyia MP, Mathew Opoku Prempeh and Assin North MP, Kennedy Agyapong if they had stock-piled arms to cause mayhem in this Friday’s election.

The invocation of the deity follows an allegations and counter allegations between the two leading political parties over who is piling up weapons to create chaos in the December elections. The NDC chair called a press conference early last Friday morning to contribute to the worrying reports of violence in Ashtown, a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

In a shocking departure from the main agenda for the press conference, Mr. Obimpeh took out a bottle of schnapps and in an incantation, mentioned the names of the three leading members of the NPP.

He is reported to have asked the deity to strike them dead if they had supplied arms to their supporters to cause mayhem in the December elections.

On the other hand, Obimpeh said if any NDC leader had also committed the same offence, the powerful deity should equally strike them dead too.

The Chairman of the National Peace Council (NPC), Rev. Emmanuel Asante, has meanwhile, told Joy FM that he was saddened by the latest development.

Another incident involving a 23-year-old man being stabbed twice in the chest over the removal of President Mahama’s posters, has been reported in Kumasi.

The incident happened at Asokore Zongo, close to Effiduase in the Ashanti Region Region. Police in Effiduase have confirmed the arrest of the suspect, Sudaise Osman.

The victim, Alhassan Faisal, is in a critical condition at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

Father of the victim, Salim Isahak, told Luv News his son and Osman popularly known as “son of the lion” were arguing over the removal of President Mahama’s pictures from his motor bike.

A scuffle ensued and Sudaise Osman stabbed him in the chest twice with a pocket knife. Narrating how the incident took place, the father of the victim said his son had sent a boy with a motor bike which had pictures of Mahama on it.

When the boy returned, the pictures had been removed. When he asked who removed the pictures, the suspect showed up and claimed it was he who removed them.

Alhassan Faisal got angry and the incident turned into a brawl, leading to Alhassan Faisal being stabbed twice on the chest, Salim Isahak said.

The suspect is in police custody, pending further investigations.