Turmoil hits Ayawaso North NDC

A group of disgruntled NDC members of the North Ayawaso Constituency allegedly stormed the Constituency’s Executive meeting last Friday to demand the reinstatement of their suspended constituency chairman, Mr. Ahmed Tahiru.

The group on Friday 20th May 2022 stormed an ongoing Constituency Executive meeting at Mamobi-Adansiman, in the Ayawaso North constituency to register their displeasure at the manner in which the party leadership handled an incident that occurred between the suspended chairman and the first national vice chairman, Alhaji Said Sinare. They bemoaned the astonishing lack of urgency in resolving the problem.

During the protest, the leader of the group, Mr Mohammed Sani stated; “We concede that our former chairman exercised indiscretion in handling the matter which almost invariably brought the party’s name into disrepute, particularly giving the positions both occupy within the NDC party. We therefore condemned his actions while accepting the decision of the party to invoke the powers contained in the constitution to suspend him as part of our disciplinary measures with the anticipation of seeing appropriate workable solution".

Mr Sani continued; “Fast forward, it’s almost two years now, yet no outcome had been obtained from the party leadership. Meanwhile, in the course of keenly following this case, we understood a Committee of Enquiry was set up last year to investigate the case at the NDC Greater Accra Regional office, of which the conflicting parties were invited to present their perspectives in the consideration of the matter. We are therefore becoming increasingly anxious as we are almost approaching the middle of the year 2022 without receiving any outcome on the determination of our suspended chairman’s state, especially as we had information that the committee had completed its hearing and had submitted its findings to the regional executive committee in December, 2021, and subsequently to the NDC National Office”.

These and many other concerns necessitated the Friday protest, which resulted in chaos among some of the members present at the meeting. Tension rose at the scene. Fortunately, volunteer arbitrators stepped up to calm nerves and calm was restored.

Immediately, after majority of the protesters had left, a joint police team from the Greater Accra Regional command and the Kotobabi District Police station arrived at the scene. However, the police obviously did not find much work to do as calm had already been restored before their arrival and no violent scene was observed.

It was later discovered that the Police were allegedly invited by some executives close to Hon. Yussif Jajah, the current NDC MP for the constituency. Some disgruntled members present at the scene expressed disappointment at the MP’s team for hastily reporting the incident to the Regional Police Command. They have again accused him of causing division in the constituency.

Some members are harbouring the suspicion that the MP is trying to impose Alhaji Manaf, the vice chairman who doubles as the acting chairman on the constituency. They threatened to boycott key party activities going forward, while some of them threatened to defect from the NDC if the case is not resolved urgently.

The ring leader of the protesters, Mr Mohammed Sani, appealed to the party to resolve the impasse between their suspended chairman and Alhaji Said Sinare as soon as possible.

When the suspended chairman was contacted for his views, he declined to comment on the matter.