NPP supporters massing up on Ashanti regional police headquarters

New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi are massing up on the headquarters of the regional police command in demand for the release of their chairman Bernard Antwi-Boasiako.

Antwi-Boasiako, commonly called Chairman Wontumi is in police custody for alleged assault of the party's Member of Parliament for Manhyia North, Collins Owusu Amankwah, and the constituency secretary, Felix Ibrahim.

Wontumi had reported himself to the police Tuesday following a request by the police who had indicated they would arrest him to assist in their investigations into the alleged assault.

Party bigwigs in the region, including regional executives and MPs have not been successful yet to secure bail for him, while supporters are massing up and demanding the police let him go.

Graphic Online's correspondent, Donald Ato Dapatem reports that a combined team of armed police and military officers have barricaded the entrance to the police station with armoured vehicles, while the supporters whose numbers are increasing by the minute, are chanting slogans.

The regional police headquarters is just a street from the central prison and the central bank.

According to the Regional Youth Organiser of the NPP, Justin Kodua, they had been at the police headquarters for hours but the police officers were not telling them anything.

He alleged that the police looked confused, suggesting to him that they were being urged by some unseen hands to keep the chairman behind bars as part of a ploy to cow the NPP into submission and allow the National Democratic Congress to have their way.

Soldiers brought in to help control the situation have started sacking people from the police headquarters and in the process heckled some armed police officers. 

Antwi-Boasiako, commonly called Chairman Wontumi is in police custody for alleged assault of the party's

The Member of Parliament for Manhyia North, Collins Owusu Amankwah, and the constituency secretary, Felix Ibrahim reported the party chairman to the police on Sunday for allegedly assaulting them while they were monitoring the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.