General News of Saturday, 6 October 2012

Source: Daily Guide

NPP Warns NDC Over Attacks

A pressure group affiliated to the Cape Coast branch of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has sent a strong warning to the leadership of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Central Region, asking it to advise its supporters to refrain from tearing and removing NPP posters.

The group, which called itself the ‘Young Patriotic Movement’ (YPM), also threatened to stage a massive demonstration against the diabolic tactics of the NDC should their leadership fail to call the supporters to order.

Addressing a press conference organised yesterday at the Oguaa NPP campaign office, the vice chairman and spokesperson for the group, Emmanuel Ebo Sarbah disclosed that YPM was worried about the tactics the NDC had employed to cause mayhem in the Cape Coast North and South constituencies.

According to him, some NDC supporters had begun destroying posters of NPP, the party’s flags in town, attacking die-hard NPP sympathisers during keep-fit exercises as well as attacking their members who paste the posters.

“What the NDC supporters are doing is a recipe for chaos and it needs to stop now else it will lead to a serious battle between the two parties,” he stated.

He revealed that a loyal member of YPM, Justina Monko, was seriously beaten by an NDC sympathiser at Ntsin, a suburb of Cape Coast, while on a keep-fit exercise last week Sunday.

He noted that this plus other four cases of assault had since been reported to the Central Regional Police Command for the necessary action to be taken.

Mr Sarbah stated that since the NPP, together with its leadership, believed in democracy and rule of law, they would not take the law into their own hands, but seek appropriate measures to salvage the situation.

“Our flagbearer, Nana Akufo Addo has made it clear that he would not want to govern a divided country. We will not do anything to contradict that but help him achieve his vision for Ghana’s progress,” he said.

Mr. Sarbah however urged the Central regional executives of the NDC to run a clean, issue-based campaign devoid of insults as the NPP was doing.

He was optimistic that once the NPP had credible presidential and parliamentary candidates in the region, they would not engage themselves in any election violence but rather go down to grassroots members to sell the party’s policies and ideologies and canvass for more votes for victory in the December elections.