Blows In NDC Over Ministers

All hell broke loose at the Ashanti Regional office of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) yesterday, as cracks in the governing party assumed a new dimension.

Two feuding groups – Coalition of NDC Footsoldiers and Activists in Kumasi, allegedly owing allegiance to the Regional Minister, Samuel Sarpong, and NDC Taskforce, whose members are believed to be supporting the Regional Chairman, Yaw Obimpeh – clashed in a frightening manner.

The two irate groups virtually turned the NDC office into a boxing arena as they openly heckled each other.

The coalition members, who claimed that they had been neglected by the party after helping it to win the 2012 polls, tried locking up the office but the NDC Taskforce prevented the action, resulting in a melee.

Chaos
The angry-looking coalition members succeeded in locking up the NDC office with padlocks on Monday, but their decision to repeat the action on Tuesday met a fierce resistance by the Taskforce members.

It took the timely intervention of armed policemen who arrived at about 9am to restore law and order.

The Regional Minister, Samuel Sarpong, who had been drawn into the raging confusion, had to quickly dash to the scene to broker peace.

The presence of the minister and the police made the feuding parties to calm down and the members of the Coalition refrained from locking the office up.

Before the arrival of the police, the Coalition and Taskforce members were at each other's throat amid wild threats and shouts which attracted a colossal number of curious people to the scene.

Ben Abdellah, Secretary of the Coalition, complained that his group had been dumped by the party after their tireless efforts across the Ashanti Region which led to the NDC winning the 2012 polls.

Peace Deal
Samuel Sarpong admonished the two factions to remain calm, and assured them that he would meet them on Wednesday so that whatever was bothering them would be resolved amicably for the NDC to position itself well towards 2016.

The angry NDC faithful accepted the minister's proposal for peace and left the party's office for the regional executives to work. No arrest was made by the police.

Accusation
Brogya Genfi, the Ashanti Regional Youth Organiser of the NDC and a lackey of the deputy Regional Minister, Joseph Yammin, seemed confused by the turn of events in the ruling party as he had allegedly been pointing accusing fingers at people.

He accused Samuel Sarpong on Peace FM of being the one fuelling the trouble in the regional NDC, adding that the entire regional executives were aware of the fiendish activities of the minister.Even though he would not indicate why he was accusing the regional minister, Brogya Genfi said he (minister) could not exonerate himself from the impasse.

He alleged that the Coalition, after locking the NDC office on Monday, quickly rushed to the Regional Coordinating Council to meet with the regional minister, adding, 'so I am convinced he is behind the troubles.'

Prior to accusing the minister, the NDC youth organiser also accused DAILY GUIDE of having a grand agenda to spark trouble in the ruling political party in the Ashanti Region.

He said that DAILY GUIDE was the only newspaper which reported in its Monday edition that the Coalition intended to demonstrate against Yaw Obimpeh on March 9.

He added that the paper also published the Coalition's invasion of the NDC office on Monday with pictures 'and these clearly show that the paper has an agenda against the NDC'.

Denial
When contacted by Peace FM, an Accra-based radio station, to respond to the accusation, Samuel Sarpong refused to talk on air but rather sent a message to the mobile phone of the producer of the morning show programme, Kwame Sefa Kayi, saying: 'Kwame, I will not enter the gutters with Brogya Genfi.Thank you very much, Samuel Sarpong.'

Brogya had previously threatened to mobilise the NDC youth in the region to demand the head of the minister in a move suggestive of carrying out the bidding of Yammin, his master.

It took the public intervention of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who openly applauded the performance of Samuel Sarpong, to get the pro-Yammin group to call off the protest.

FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi