The recent death of the Member of Parliament for Kumawu in the Ashanti Region, Philip Basoah has exposed deep-rooted cracks within the New Patriotic Party in the constituency.
Despite his death being officially attributed to a medical condition, there are links being drawn between his death and the disunity in the party at the constituency as well as some events that have occurred in the past as a result of the infighting.
According to a report by Kofi Adomah Nwanwani of Kofi TV sighted by GhanaWeb, there are attempts to blame the death of the MP on some members of the party.
Those being blamed include the constituency chairman, secretary of the party, the district chief executive as well as some other leading members of the party in the constituency who were internal opponents of the MP.
They are being accused of pressuring the MP in their attempts to assume his position leading to his death.
However, amidst the accusations and blame game, persons from the side of the DCE and constituency chairman and others are attributing the death of the MP to some activities undertaken by elements within the camp of the MP in the past.
Nana Owuahene, a member of the party opposed to the MP in an interview with Kofi TV said Mr Basoah’s death could as well be attributed to some events that took place in 2021.
According to him, some members of the party in 2021 conducted some rituals amidst curses while accusing the MP's opponents of working against them and late Philip Bosoah.
“Some of their issues were that the DCE, secretary and constituency chairman as well as some executives had accused them of not campaigning for the MP and it was for that reason that they were invoking the curses,” he narrated in reference to a video of some group of men conducting rituals at a stream.
The men in the said video are seen pouring libation in a stream and calling on the gods of the stream to visit mayhem on their adversaries and that of the MP.
In another video, the men sacrificed a lamb while laying curses on the opponents of the MP.
“The curses were invoked in 2021 and we have not heard anything about it until the recent death of the MP. Following his death, his supporters are accusing the chairman and some party officials including the Ashanti regional chairman and regional minister. But we would want them to understand that his death has nothing to do with these people but rather his own people who did that.
"We want everyone to understand that the blame should be attributed to the things and rituals they did in the past,” Nana Owauhene told Kofi Adamah.
Philip Basoah died at a hospital in Accra on Tuesday, March 28, 2023.
He was first elected to parliament as MP for Kumawu in 2016 and was subsequently re-elected in 2020.
Meanwhile, the family following the death of the late MP has barred the District Chief Executive (DCE) from the area of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Executives from attending the funeral rites.
The ban according to the family, targets the District Chief Executive Officer (DCE) of the area in particular Mr. Samuel Addae Agyekum who has been accused severally of engineering evil against the late MP.
“The NPP executives must count themselves out of all funeral arrangements and everything concerning my late brother’s funeral”, the brother of the late MP Mr. Solomon Basoah warned on live radio
Giving reasons for the decision by the family on Kumasi-based Angel FM, Mr Solomon Basoah revealed that, “on Wednesday I was told they (NPP executives in the district) wanted to come to the family, so I called the DCE and he also confirmed. Just after speaking with the DCE, I called Justin Kodua and told him my mother is old and she is aware of all that the party did to my brother in Kumawu. Sometimes they insult my mother herself which she is aware of. It is likely she will go with her son if she sees the Kumawu executives at the funeral. Therefore, none of the party executives of Kumawu must step foot at the funeral. They must count themselves out of all funeral arrangements and everything concerning my late brother’s funeral.”
The District Chief Executive Officer Samuel Addae Agyekum was also accused by the family of spreading falsehoods about the late MP while he was on his sick bed battling for his life.