NPP Executives Trade Blows

…At La Dadekotopon party office

INFORMATION reaching “The Chronicle” on Saturday from the La Dadekotopon constituency office of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) indicates that the bickering within the party in the constituency, which almost died down with the last constituency elections, has resurfaced.

And this time, the misunderstanding among party functionaries culminated in the trading of blows. It was gathered that last weekend there was drama at the constituency office of the party when the party’s Constituency Treasurer, whose name was given only as Fokker T, resorted to a Zidane-like head-butting attack on a key party activist.

The head-butt was followed by a swift karate-like chop on the jaws of the activist, sending him landing on the ground like a piece of log The incident, which revealed a clear agenda, occurred at the NPP constituency office where the constituency chairpersons had met activists and some executive members to confer on the way forward for the area in the up-coming District Assembly Elections.

The confusion erupted when the Treasurer accused the party activist, Nii Ayi Komey, of campaigning for the incumbent Assembly Member who was known to be a member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

In the course of the discussions, the Treasurer accused the activist as one of those helping the NDC instead of their own party, the NPP.

When Nii Komey stood up to explain and defend himself, eyewitnesses said the Treasurer pounced on him without preamble, claiming he was telling lies. When this paper contacted the Treasurer, he confirmed there had been a scuffle. According to him, he confronted the party members because they were spreading false rumours against the party to the advantage of the NDC candidate, and that it was untenable that a party member should resort to unfounded allegations and wage a campaign against his own party.

He however denied exchanging blows with anyone but said in the process of the heated argument; he had fallen down when he sat partially on the seat. Fokker T, who stated that he would not allow the party to be dragged into the mud by people who wanted to scupper the chances of the NPP in the upcoming elections, said some group of party members who stood and contested for various positions in the constituency and lost had made it their agenda to destroy the reputation of the party in the area.

Madam Gladys Dadey, the party’s Constituency Chairperson, expressed her indignation about the twist and turns given to a meeting she had held to cross-check facts from Nii Komey to ensure that peace prevailed among the party members.

She underscored that Mr Komey, who was peeved because he was not given the Financial Secretary position of the party, had been peddling untruths about the party; one of which was his claim that the constituency branch of the party had been given ¢24 million.

“Nobody fought in the office though Fokker was angry and moved towards Nii Komey, who was the sitting partially on a seat by eh TV, and later on fell down,” Mad. Dadey narrated. “I clamed Fokker down because I had not invited them to come and fight.”

According to her, her interest in the constituency was to promote peace and unity for the progress of the party and bemoaned the actions of defeated candidates in the area.

Meanwhile, the accused, who is said to be campaigning seriously against the NPP candidate, laughed off the attack and warned the Treasurer not to repeat what he described as a “silly act” because he would not hesitate to reply him with a deadly blow if he tried again.

“Everybody knows you are a perpetually ill animal, so I will not reply you; but that shouldn’t give you an excuse to try another trick,” he is reported to have warned. “I don’t want to have blood on my hands.”

The scene, which drew a large crowd, attracted the anger of NPP sympathizers who began raining insults on their executives for their “greedy and backwardness”. The insult by the sympathizers also contained typical unprintable invectives used exclusively in Accra’s indigenous fishing communities.

A move by a ‘concerned youth’ group to drag the executives before the Regional Executives and the Accra Mayor, Nii Adjiri Blankson, was being considered. The La Police, who were made aware of the incident, refused to be drawn into it because they felt the matter was one that was likely to receive better attention from the political heads rather than the police.

The meeting had been called to discuss the case of having some NPP members running against each other in the Assembly Elections, and the need to get the less popular ones to step down for winnable candidates, so that the NDC-sponsored candidates would not be advantaged.

The shocked Constituency Chairperson, Gladys Dadey, who had intended to broker a deal to reduce tension among NPP aspirants contesting against a single NDC candidate for one set and also reconcile factions in the conflict, ended up scampering away in her car to save herself from being caught in the cross-fire of the cat and mouse politics in the constituency.