Some irate residents of Savelugu have on Thursday, 15 June clashed with police in protest over the appointment of Hajia Ayishetu Seidu as the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE).

The youth marched to the district assembly to lock the place up Thursday morning to prevent the MCE from accessing her office but were prevented from entering the premises by the police.

The police fired warning shots to disperse the crowd but they remained resolute, saying they would not leave the assembly.

A protester who spoke to Class News’ regional correspondent, Mohammed Gadafi, said: “Today, we organised ourselves to go to the assembly and locked the assembly down because we will not allow the woman to be the MCE. You can’t impose anyone on us... So they came out with a lot of policemen in two buses and a pickup to harass us and we say they can’t harass us.

They started beating us and we also started protecting ourselves. Right now they are shooting bullets to scare us away and we are saying that we are also not going to move. All of us are at Savelugu and we will never allow the woman to be the MCE at all cost.”

Heavily armed soldiers and police officers on Wednesday, June 14, 2017, escorted Hajia Seidu to assume office following threats by the irate youth not to allow her to perform her duties.

Hajia Ayishetu was confirmed in May 2017 and has since not reported to work because some residents, led by New Patriotic Party (NPP) constituency executives, have refused to allow her set foot in her office.

The NPP youth argue that she is not a registered voter in the area, has not participated in or contributed to any of the party’s activities, and as such is an alien to them.

They have vowed to prevent her from working as the MCE and said they will not allow government to impose her on them.