Assassination Charges Fly High in Ashanti NPP

ASSASSINATION CHARGES are flying high in the top hierarchy of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in its Ashanti stronghold, as internal party altercation bleeds violence and underground maneuvers toward the election of the next party flagbearer.

A leading member of one of the feuding factions in the Atwima-Nwabiagya Constituency of the NPP in the Ashanti region, Mr. Yaw Adjei Anhwere, has accused the party's Regional Chairman, Mr. Robert Yaw Amankwa, of plotting to assassinate him.

According to him, the latest of the alleged assassination attempt on his life by the chairman happened last Wednesday night at his Asuoyeboah residence in Kumasi, when a group of macho men emerged from nowhere and besieged his home, apparently to attack him for reasons he did not know.

Mr. Anhwere narrated that immediately the thugs arrived at his residence, he sensed danger and called his brother from Abuakwa, who also brought to the scene four police officers to prevent any violence.

He however stated that the police could not arrest any suspects as they all took to their heels upon the arrival of the law enforcement officers.

He believed Mr. Amankwa was really behind the move because it was his third instance of encountering the same ill-mannered individuals; he mentioned KNUST and Juaben (during the funeral of the late Prof. Adu Boahen) as places the chairman had had the group attempt to attack him.

According to Anhwere, at the funeral of the late Prof. Adu Boahen, Chairman Amankwa (as he is popularly known) asked the thugs to beat him up because he was allegedly creating confusion, which allegation he said was untrue, indicating that some activists would readily testify on his behalf.

About the KNUST incident, the NPP's arguably 'big fish' recounted the ordeal he experienced at the hands of the alleged bodyguards of Mr. Amankwa during the party's national delegates' congress because he (Anhwere) pitched camp with Mr. Mac Manu against the chairman's preferred candidate, Mr. Stephen Ayensu Ntim.

He continued that he suspected Mr. Amankwa was after his life because an impression had been created to suggest that he (Anhwere) was further fueling the internal wrangling of the Atwima Nwabiagya Constituency, where he leads a faction.

However, Mr. Robert Amankwa denied in a telephone interview the allegations describing, them as untrue and a figment of Anhwere's own imaginations.

According to him, he had not been in Kumasi for sometime and therefore could not have ordered "macho men" to "finish off" a party member he (Amankwa) was not even in competition with.

"For what purpose?" he asked.

He believed Mr. Anhwere was nobody in the NPP let alone in the same social class with him, adding that he could not fathom why he, as a regional chairman, would condescend to kill a nonentity.

Concerning earlier threats against Mr. Anhwere, the NPP chairman dismissed and tagged them as a pack of lies being peddled by the member.

He explained that it was Anhwere who approached him on the eve of the trip from Kumasi to Accra for the delegates' congress, begging to be included on the list for the election; a plea he turned down because he could not do anything about it.

Amankwa continued in his submission that he did not see Mr. Adjei Anhwere at the funeral grounds of the late Professor to have ordered for his beating and possible killing as alleged, concluding that he was a man with too much dignity and respect in society to commit such a crime that could attract imprisonment for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, Mr. Yaw Adjei Anhwere has since lodged a formal complaint at the Abuakwa police station.