Lee Ocran pleads innocentSamia Nkrumah smells down shit-bombI`m not perturbed

A NEWLY-furnished office, established at Bonyire in the Nzema areas of the Western Region, meant as another staging post for the Convention People's Party (CPP) parliamentary candidate, Samia Nkrumah, was over the weekend shit-bombed by unknown 'carpet bombers', but after three hours of voluntary cleaning the mess, the candidate herself appeared to be unfazed by what must be a shock for her, waving it off as 'just another irritant'.

She told Chronicle yesterday 'I'm not bothered at all…'

It was just another little diversion by her detractors, who could not wait to witness the inauguration of the office in the Bonyire community, the second biggest in the Jomoro constituency.

According to members of the CPP, who spoke to The Chronicle after the incident, while the party men were preparing to inaugurate the office, their opponents in the constituency were also organising to face them squarely with human excreta, planning to deface the new office.

Hours before the inauguration of the new office, they struck, and painted the whole place with human excreta. Some constituents were left speculating as to whether it happened the previous night, while others believed it occurred a few hours to the event.

The Chairman of the Samia-led campaign team, Mr. Peter Anderson, told The Chronicle that when they realised what had happened, they had no option than to report the matter to the police. “We did not have any option, than to report the matter to the police.”

Sounding pretty laid back about it, the campaign chairman noted that though it was bizarre and unheard-of, he wondered aloud, what had happened to civility, if people could still employ such dirty tactics to smear others in their quest to receive the mandate of the people.

He said he had restrained his supporters from retaliating. “Our campaign has been civil, and we believe we are winning,” Anderson emphasised.

He indicated that since the commencement of their campaign for the December polls, which was about issues, their message, as a winning team, as he put it, was based on the major issues of concern to the people.

The Chronicle also gathered that the controversial National Youth Organiser of the party, Mr. Kwabena Bomfeh, who was in the news for the wrong reasons, passed by the constituency over the weekend to extend a helping hand to boost the campaign of Samia Nkrumah.

What deepened suspicions further, was that day, the CPP was about to stage a rally at Elubo, the border town, with a platform and canopies, when a group of youth, believed to have come from the camp of the MP, stormed the grounds and vandalized party materials and pulling down the canopies in the process.

Mr. Anderson confirmed the incident, and added that some NDC youth were arrested and held at the Elubo police station, where they confirmed that indeed they were supporters of the NDC. Three of them were said to be assisting the police.

When the combatants in the race for the Jomoro seat were all contacted, they held divergent views on the matter. While the CPP candidate, Samia, preferred to ignore the incident and concentrate on her campaign, Hon. Lee Ocran, who is accused of being behind the two incidents, refuted the allegations against him, his supporters, and his party.

He, however, explained that what happened at the CPP party office at Bonyire was none of his business, and that he was also innocent of the Elubo incident, because he was not in town at the time the incident happened.

He challenged The Chronicle to verify from the security forces in the constituency, to establish the veracity and facts of the matter.

Messrs Martin Yamekah Arkah, District Chief Executive for Jomoro contesting on the ticket of the NPP, the incumbent MP and candidate of the NDC, and Samia Nkrumah, daughter of first president of Ghana of the CPP, are all jostling. But the recent disturbances in the constituency, especially the weekend and Monday skirmishes, point to a two way between the NDC candidate and the CPP candidate.

The NDC has gained notoriety for introducing the phenomenon into the Ghanaian polity, and the suspicion that Hon. Lee Ocran's men were behind this latest outrage, is not far fetched.