KMA Boss Beats NDC Chairman

There was commotion at the Ashanti Regional meeting of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kumasi on Tuesday as the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Chief Executive, Samuel Sarpong, subjected the regional chairman of the party, Yaw Obimpeh, to thorough beatings to the surprise of party leaders.

Police officers and other party officials reportedly saved Mr Obimpeh from suffering further beatings at the hands of the KMA chief who threw decency to the winds.

The NDC boss was allegedly manhandled by Mr. Sarpong, who accused the regional party chief of masterminding his removal from office as KMA boss.

The incident occurred at a party meeting held at the Regional Coordinating Council chaired by the Regional Minister, Dr. Kwaku Agyeman Mensah.

Mr. Sarpong’s fisticuff disrupted the otherwise peaceful meeting.

Information about what really triggered the beating of Mr Obimpeh, an avowed supporter of President Atta Mills, in the presence of other regional and constituency executives of the party, so far looks sketchy.

But sources at the event told DAILY GUIDE that the KMA boss was so angry that he even threatened taking the life of Mr. Obimpeh if he dared orchestrate his removal from office.

The action of the Metropolitan chief prompted the Ashanti regional NDC to call for his head.

A release signed by Joseph Yammin, the regional secretary of the party, said the leadership was angry about the alleged beating of the party chairman by Mr. Sarpong, an act they described as disrespectful to the party and its members.

“The regional secretariat of the party wants to express its displeasure and disappointment in Hon. Samuel Sarpong, the KMA chief executive’s physical and verbal attack on the regional chairman, Yaw Obimpeh, yesterday 02/11/2011 at the regional coordinating council,” the statement said.

The KMA boss, Yammin demanded, “should come out and apologise publicly or we the regional and constituency executives would halt party activities within the region with immediate effect for the regional minister, his deputy and the KMA chief executive to take over”.

“We want to send a strong warning to all government appointees within the region that the party will not and never jeopardize its powers to any of them, so wherever they are having their hope and inspirations from will not help them,” the party said.

Delving into what occurred at the meeting, he said the regional chairman was invited to a meeting chaired by the regional minister, and also attended by the deputy regional minister and all the MMDCEs.

Yammin disclosed that Mr Sarpong, in the course of the meeting, accused the NDC chairman of paying the assembly members to pass a vote of no confidence in him and other MMDCEs in the region.

“It is very pathetic that the mayor doesn’t even know that the regional chairman does not have to pay for his removal but just have to petition the president that he simply cannot work with him and the president has no option than to listen to him and his executives because out of a party a government is born and the party is supreme.

“This insensitive act by the mayor has just put us, the regional executives, on our toes to assess the performance of all government appointees, MMDCEs and recommend appropriately to the president the non-performing ones,” he said.

Yammin said the NDC in the region also wanted to send a strong warning to the regional minister and his dealings with the mayor and the MMDCEs that the “party will not allow any of these government appointees to jeopardize the 2012 general election because the regional party executives will resist it from all angles.”

The minister and the mayor, as well as other MMDCEs, he noted, should know that they were only government appointees and nothing else, noting, “The total disregard and disrespect to the Hon. Regional Chairman indicate same to every regional executive.”

The NDC in the region, he stated, was solidly behind the regional chairman and would not entertain any disrespect from any of the government appointees within the region.

“The mayor should also have at the back of his mind that a day is coming, tortoise will fly,” he said.

Attempts to talk to the KMA boss failed.