Conflict in Bunkpurugu/Yunyo is not intra-party - Braimah

Tamale, Sept. 25, GNA - Mr. Clifford Braimah, Northern Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has denied allegations that the recent Komkomba/Bimoba conflict in the Bunkpurugu/Yunyo District was an intra-party conflict within the NPP.

He said the district was noted for several land and clan disputes and that recently the people of Gbintre, a major Komkomba community in the East Mamprusi District, made a move to join the Bunkpurugu/Yunyo District and this raised security concerns.

Mr. Braimah was speaking to the GNA in an interview in reaction to allegations made by the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, that the conflict was an intra-party conflict among NPP members over parliamentary nominations for the Bunkprugu/Yunyo constituency.

Mr. Braimah said official reports had it that the conflict, which started at Jimbali, was as a result of a quarrel between a Komkomba and a Bimoba over a 20-cedi note.

He said it was therefore strange that Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah could describe the conflict as an intra-party conflict. Mr Braimah said as far as nominations for the parliamentary candidates were concerned, the party had decided that it would not open nominations for constituencies with sitting MPs. He said two members of the party who wanted to file for the Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo constituency were Bimobas. Mr Braimah said the NPP was aware that when the NDC opened nominations for the same constituency, three people filed their papers and one of them was a Komkomba and wondered why that did not generate a conflict.

Mr. Braimah said for Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah to come out to say that the conflict in the area was an intra-NPP conflict raised issues that needed explanation.

He said it was important to know what intelligence the NDC had that the state security did not have and why the party did not pass on such information but rather chose to come out with such a statement. Mr. Braimah wondered why in the midst of the general insecurity prevailing in the district, Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah could travel to the area without any fear.

"It is not far fetched to think that the NDC had a plan to create insecurity in the area and they were monitoring to see if their plan was working", he said