Fighting between NPP and NDC supporters in Bimbilla

Fighting broke out between supporters of New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) at the Bimbilla Police Station over the arrest of an NDC supporter and his vehicle by the Police.

The situation was so tense that the Police had to fire warning shots to disperse the crowd, most of whom were NDC supporters, who had stormed the Police station to sympathise with their arrested colleague.

Police Superintendent Mohammed A. Adams, Divisional commander of the Yendi Police, told the Ghana News Agency that some NPP supporters went to the Police station to report that they had seen a Nissan pickup vehicle without any registration number making rounds in the town.

Superintendent Adams said the Police invited the owner with the vehicle to the station. It was realised that the vehicle had a registration number GT 3155 Q only at the front.

He said the owner of the vehicle, Mr Alhassan Sulemana in his statement to the Police said that he had travelled to Bimbilla from Tamale on Thursday and explained that the registration number at the rear might have fallen down.

In a related development one person has been admitted at the Bimbilla Health Centre with head injuries following a fight between supporters of the NPP and NDC at Kpaturi, seven miles from Bimbilla, where there is a polling station.

Briefing the GNA on the incident, Mr Sugri Sulemana Sibri, the Returning Officer, said armed soldiers and police personnel had been despatched to Kpaturi to maintain law and order.

He said some settlers, who had fled the village in the wake of the Northern Conflict in 1994 and were resident at Bimbilla, still had their names on the Kpaturi voters' register and, therefore, had to travelled to the village to cast their vote.

He said when they arrived at the polling station to vote, the polling agents, who suspected them of attempting to vote twice, refused to allow them to cast their vote. Mr Sibri said this resulted in confusion during which supporters of both NPP and NDC used sticks and stones in a fight.

Mr Sibri said one man who was hit on the head and consequently fell to the ground, was rushed to the Bimbilla Health Centre for treatment. When GNA contacted Superintendent Adams, he said the Police had received a report about the incident.

He said when the Police visited the Health Centre to see the victim, the authorities refused to allow them. Meanwhile, several voters, who had transferred their votes to Bimbilla in the 2000 general election, were prevented from voting in the by-election.

In their frustration, they marched to the Nanumba District Electoral Office to lodge a complaint. Mr Mensah Worlanyo Tegah, District Electoral Officer, told them, however, that voters' transfers were nullified in a by-election and as such, they could not cast their vote.

He explained that the EC had educated all the contesting political parties in the by-election that transfers of votes was not allowed in a by-election. He, therefore, expressed surprise at the incident, saying: "the whole of Ghanaian voters would have been at Bimbilla if we had allowed such transfers."