Techiman, Wenchi NDC in flames

The Al-Hajj can confirm that the battle over who becomes the government’s local representative for the Wenchi and Techiman South districts has ignited an intense ethnic wrangling among the major players in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the districts and is gradually tearing apart the party’s cohesion and making it unpopular.

This paper gathered that whiles the indigenes of both towns are busily rooting for a particular candidate to be considered as District Chief Executive, the settlers, mainly Northerners/Zongos and Ewes are also pushing for their preferred candidate to be considered for same position.

The development is said to have created bitter resentment among the indigenes and settlers to the extent that, though most of them are core and frontline members of the ruling party, they now see each other as fiercest political arch-rivals.

Both factions (indigenes and settlers) have vowed to distance themselves from the party and even vote against it in the event one of the factions’ preferred candidates is nominated by the President at the expense of the other.

An elder of the NDC in the Brong Ahafo region who pleaded for anonymity confirmed the incident to The Al- Hajj and said “both factions have taken entrenched positions and any attempt to compromise the position of any of the factions at the expense of the other will not augur well for the party in the two districts.”

The NDC bigwig noted that the development is so disturbing that the president needs to act cautiously in the selection of DCE for the two areas to avert any unfortunate incident in the area.

But recently, though there is no official communication from the seat of government that the President has nominated an MCE for Techiman South, the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, was said to have announced on a local radio in the Techiman municipality that Mr Philip Oppong Amponsah, a close pal of the deputy Minister of Local Government, Hon Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum, had been nominated by the President as the MCE for area.

This angered the settlers, particularly the Muslim youths in Techiman who took to the street in protest against the announcement but for the swift intervention of a military patrol team there could have been a bloodbath in the municipality.

Later at a press conference organized by the Zongo caucus of the NDC at Techiman, the spokesperson of the group, Mr. Suleman Mohammed Mustapha, said information gathered by the group indicated that the President had not nominated Mr Amponsah as the MCE for Techiman.

Ironically, whereas a communiqué from the seat of government confirming Mr. Oppong Amponsah’s nomination by the President is still untraceable, this paper is credibly informed that the Region Minister, through the Regional Coordinating Director has given Mr. Oppong Amposah an appointment letter and has directed officials of the Techiman South Municipal Assembly to do the necessary arrangement for his approval.

Words abound in Techiman Township that the First Lady, Madam Lordina Mahama’s protégé, the MP and also former DCE for Nkoranza South, Hon Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum is said to be using his close relationship with the first lady to engage in all manner of brute political tactics to get the newly-nominated MCE endorsed.

Whiles the local Chiefs of the area, most of whom are reported to be sympathizers of the opposition NPP are said to have hailed the nomination, opinion leaders, Zongo elders and youth groups among the settlers have nicknamed Phillip Opong Amponsah as a “419 MCE” and have vowed not to have anything to do with the NDC in the event he is approved.

In the case of Wenchi, the settlers say the indigenes with the support of some party gurus have demonstrated to them time and again that certain key positions like DCE slots are only meant for people of Wenchi descent regardless of one’s qualification.

The development in both districts, some kingpins of the NDC in the Brong Ahafo region said if not handled carefully will affect the chances of the party in the 2016 election, adding “this DCE thing has disintegrated the party in both district and if care is not taken it will affect us in 2016.”