Plot To Smear Nana.One Grabbed

With the electoral run-off just about six days away, vigilant New Patriotic Party (NPP) activists in the Volta region have arrested a 26-year-old electrician over an Indian Hemp-laden vehicle bedecked with the posters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Mawuli Doklah was the only man arrested out of the four occupants of the Isuzu vehicle with registration number AS 5840 Q when it attracted the attention of the NPP constituency officials. He is expected to appear in court today.

His accomplices managed to escape from the pursuing NPP elements and local community protection officials in Kpando in the North Dayi constituency of the Volta region yesterday after they smelled a rat in the Nana poster vehicle.

Although the Police have asked that the subject be devoid of political undertones, preferring to consider it as a decoy by some criminal elements to outwit them, political observers think otherwise. Curious persons who pleaded anonymity regard it as one of the latest from the arsenal of opponents of the ruling party to muddy the political waters of the winner of the first round of elections held on December 7.

The arrest of the suspect and the impounding of the vehicle by the NPP Kpebe chairman in the constituency David Adae and his staff was at first disputed by their National Democratic Congress (NDC) counterparts who claimed to be responsible for the feat.

Both were at each others throats over which of them was responsible for the impounding of the wee-laden Isuzu vehicle.

Eventually the truth was out when the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Bernard Derry, stormed the location with other officers to undertake a preliminary investigation and to ascertain the truth.

The NDC succumbed to the truth when it was presented in the end by the Regional Commander leaving their NPP counterparts to smile for their yeoman’s job in supporting the Police and averting what could have developed into a major smear campaign against their leader.

Narrating the story to the DAILY GUIDE yesterday, the Volta Regional Police chief said that the NPP chairman of Wusuta Kpebe area in the North Dayi constituency with the assistance of a local community protection group arrested the suspect and handed him over to the Police for carrying a large quantity of Indian Hemp in a vehicle bedecked with the posters of Nana Addo.

The chairman, David Adae, became suspicious on spotting the strange Isuzu vehicle which is not known in the area, with registration number AS 5840 Q.

With the support of some local community protection officials, the chairman pursued the vehicle which had changed course and drove to the banks of the Volta River at a place called Kpebe. The lone suspect, Mawuli Doklah, who was nabbed by the NPP executives is currently assisting the Police in their investigations.

The interceptors took possession of the vehicle and the suspect and thereupon handed them over to the Police.

DCOP Derry told DAILY GUIDE that the suspect has been handed over the Volta Regional CID so he can be arraigned today.

The Regional Commander expressed gratitude to the local NPP officials whose vigilance he said led to the arrest.

This part of the Volta region is noted for Indian Hemp trafficking.

The director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Kwesi Ofori, said the posters of the NPP presidential candidate was used as a decoy by the suspects.

The political terrain has witnessed in recent days an unprecedented incidence of allegations by some politicians against their opponents.

President John Agyekum Kufuor even though not part of the political race since he is leaving office very soon has not been spared the campaign of calumny.

He is initiating a case against the former Special Aide to Jerry John Rawlings for associating him with a phantom Kuwaiti oil deal that allegedly went bad.

The NPP presidential candidate has often pleaded with his political opponents to concentrate on issue-based campaigns as opposed to the resort to insults and unsubstantiated allegations which he said do not serve any purpose.

The incidence of unsubstantiated allegations has assumed an alarming rate in recent times.

Last week a printing press in Accra Newtown was found working on T-shirts with the impression of the NDC presidential candidate and the CPP candidate, Paa Kwesi Nduom, to mislead the electorate into believing that the two had entered into a sort of electoral alliance.

In yet another incidence of trickery some youth were seen carrying a computer arranged voice of Nana pleading with the electorate to vote for his NDC counterpart.

In the coming days before the run-off the political landscape will witness many of such acts of trickery.

Already some rural folks have been deceived that the December 28 run-off is not meant for them but for those who did not vote on December 7. NPP activists according to DAILY GUIDE sources is engaged in a massive education programme to counter these tricks.