“God will take away Baba Jamal’s voice if…” – Jake Obetsebi- lamptey.

NPP stalwart, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey has told the NDC Parliamentary candidate for the Akwatia Constituency, Baba Jamal, that he should be cautious about his conduct else God would take away his voice.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey described Mr. Jamal as a very gifted young man blessed with a tremendous ability to convince and woo people into his fold.

He was sharing his opinion on the state of affairs in Akwatia ahead of today's parliamentary election in the constituency.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey, who has not hidden his ambition to lead the opposition NPP as national chairman, in an interview with

Citi FM regretted the security situation at Akwatia and said Baba Jamal and his supporters must be careful about how they carry themselves around in preparing for today's elections.

He said “…someone like Baba Jamal must be very careful, he will find that God will take away his voice…he is very good at persuading people to his point of view, he makes cogent arguments and is good on TV and radio”.

Aside from all these complementary words, Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said “if in spite of that gift he turns around and says I am also going to use violence to get my way, then Allah will say you are wasting the gift I gave you, you don't need the gift I gave you”.

Political watchers in the Akwatia say the excitement and confusion generated in the lead up to today's parliamentary election in the constituency is unprecedented, especially considering the fact that the election is slated for just six polling centres.

As Dr. Kofi Asare, NPP's candidate is having his first crack at a parliamentary election, Baba Jamal is attempting to represent Akwatia for the third time. Parliamentary election in the constituency was marred by violence in the last general elections.

The manner in which the election was disrupted goaded a court tussle. It was finally ruled that the election should only be re-run in the six polling stations which saw gross violations of the Electoral Commission laws on elections, instead of the entire constituency.

The people of Akwatia, since Hon. Kingston Akomeng-Kissi vacated the parliamentary seat in January this year, have not had any representation in parliament.

Nasty scenes played out in the constituency over the weekend when supporters of both the NDC and NPP engaged each other in open confrontation, with Nana Ohene-Ntow, General secretary of the NPP and others claiming they were beaten.

They accused the police of taking sides with the NDC, an allegation the police have vehemently denied.

The Regional Security Council, chaired by the Regional Minister, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, even advised the EC to postpone the elections since the magnitude of violence seen and its potential degeneration did not auger well for peace and security in the area.

Consequently, the Interior Minister slapped a dawn to dusk curfew on the town to help tone down the tension in the area.