Rally in honour of Bawumia turns sour at Bolga

A CHAOTIC scene created at the Jubilee Park in Bolgatanga last Saturday, during a rally organized in honour of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Presidential running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, nearly marred its beauty. It all started when the Member of Parliament for Navrongo Central Constituency, Joseph Kofi Adda, had addressed party supporters and was going back to the dais to take his seat.

According to some NPP members who were at the dais at the time of the incident, Mr. Adda did not acknowledge the Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, who was also part of the running-mate’s entourage, before and after mounting the platform to give his brief comments on why Ghanaians should renew the mandate of the NPP.

This sounded odd to Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, who then verified from the MP why he did not acknowledge the presence of the Vice-President.

Mr. Adda reportedly told Jake that the Vice President hated him, and that there was no need for him to greet him.

The Vice President confronted him on why he has resorted to violence, but he responded in the negative and insisted that people were rather fighting him because they were scared he was going to win massively.

This did not go down well with Mr. Adams Mahama, a close ally of the vice-President, which resulted in heated verbal exchanges between him and the former Energy Minister. Narrating his version to this reporter after the incident, Mr. Adams Mahama said after Adda had engaged in the altercations with the Veep and was going to take his seat, he asked him why he did that in the full glare of the party supporters.

According to him, Mr. Adda reacted rather violently and called him a silly boy. Adams alleged that Adda rushed to hit him but he pushed him away. Adda would not make any comment when our Deputy News Editor, George Frimpong

contacted him on phone, except to say that “Aliu is peeved because I did not support him in the NPP Presidential race”.

According to him, he was going to see his lawyers to take appropriate action against Adams for assaulting him.

On Joy FM, Adda maintained that if he had offended the Vice President he would have been arrested by his security detail. He wondered why the security could not handle the case but left the matter to Adams to take the law into his own hands.

He indicated that he had lodged a formal complaint with the police and has been issued with medical forms to attend to the Clinic.

Mr. Yaw Kwara, the Driver of the District Chief Executive of the Kasena Nankana Assembly, who claimed that he witnessed the incident, told The Chronicle when contacted from Accra that when it got to Mr. Adda’s turn to deliver his speech, he heard Adams screaming “Adda, this time we are taking the seat from you.” This comment, according to him, led to the exchange of words and Adams allegedly hit Kofi Adda. “My shirt even got torn when I tried to restrain Adams from the assault,” he remarked.