MEMBERS of a pro-government group calling itself the Organised Youth of Ashanti (OYA), based in Kumasi, have called off a planned procession to say “Thank You” to President John Mahama, scheduled for today in the Ashanti Regional capital.
The youth organiser of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the region, Brogya Genfi, announced the decision of the group in a statement to the media yesterday.
The procession - a rival demonstration against opposition group, Movement for Change (MFC) - was to shore up the support President Mahama and his government enjoy in the region following the provision of infrastructural projects.
The youth organiser cited security concerns as underlying the decision to call off the march and added that the procession had been rescheduled for the first week of March, 2015.
He continued that the OYA would hold a press conference to give details and specific reasons of the postponement, and asked all members and sympathisers of the group to take note of the call-off.
The MFC Director of Operations, Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, has called the decision “ludicrous” and damaging to community relations as it amounts to dishonesty and insincerity of the real motives of the group.
He told DAILY GUIDE the decision “effectively signs the death warrant of this discredited group of NDC youth who have breached the faith of public good.”
According to him, while the ill-motives of the OYA had closed thoroughfare to a dignified demonstration by the MFC members and concerned residents of the Ashanti Region over unsteady electricity supply in Kumasi conversely, it was not going to open the road either for them for the procession to rally support for a dying government.
Odeneho Appiah said the rationale behind OYA's decision to call off its intended procession was “deeply flawed,” having attempted to thwart the MFC's protest march against the NDC government, and added that “This wrong-headed approach will do little to build respect and tolerance for democracy.”
He called on the OYA leadership to render an unqualified apology to the people of the region for the move, recalling how the NDC group struggled to hold the procession on the same day to coincide with that of the MFC.
“We interpreted their action as an invitation of violence and intolerance by the NDC government led by President John Dramani Mahama,” he stated.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that the group fixed the same date with MFC – a pro opposition group – in order for the police to cancel both demonstrations, fearing that they might lead to bloodbath.
Unfortunately for the Mahama group, the police rather advised the MFC to reschedule their demo to the next day - Wednesday, February 25, 2015 - which they obliged, to allow peace to rein.
Realising that its diabolic agenda would not wash, the pro-Mahama group was left with no other option than to call it off, citing security concerns even when the Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kofi Boakye, had assured them of adequate security.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi
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