‘Soldiers’ Raid NPP Offices

The National Headquarters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Asylum Down and its Kokomlemle annex offices in Accra yesterday suffered simultaneous raids by military Olive-Green-clad men who made away with documents and computer hardware.

By the time they were done with their mission, the party was saddled with burgled offices, with everything turned upside down.

It is believed the operation was coordinated by the National Security apparatus with the support of fifth columnists in the party.

Beginning
One of the four men who sleep at the party's Asylum Down offices had spotted a police vehicle parked close to the office as though on a reconnaissance patrol, but which soon left without a trace.

In what appeared to be a choreographed operation, a group of armed uninformed men suspected to be soldiers under the National Security descended upon the offices of the party, knocking on the main gate, according to a narration by one of the men at the office.

When the invaders were reluctantly given access, they quickly confined the security men to a portion of the security post before moving to the top floor of the structure where they ransacked the place.

Operation
The mostly uniformed men had arrived in three vehicles and could not have been stopped as they were armed to the teeth. All offices upstairs were rummaged with the exception of Kwabena Agyepong's, Paul Afoko's and Otiko Djaba's, DAILY GUIDE learnt.

Antwi Agyei, Protocol Director at the party headquarters, appeared to have suffered the most, with papers scattered in his office as though the uninvited guests were looking for a needle in a haystack.

Weapons
The uniformed men brought some firearms including AK 47 rifles and pump action guns which they asked the security men to touch.

One of the security men tried to use a protective rubber to cover his hand before touching the weapons about which they said they knew nothing, but he was screamed at to do so without any protective covering.

The firearms, which the security men at the party office said they did not know anything about, were taken away by the uniformed men in a sack.

Director Of Elections
Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, Director of Elections, lost a hard drive to the marauders among other items, DAILY GUIDE learnt.

Riff Raffs
No sooner had the unwanted guests left than a group of scruffy-looking guys arrived, with some of them in T-shirts with the inscription, 'Unity and Peace'. Some of them were identified as residents of Nima by those who saw them during their arrival.

'Some of them are known members of the NDC,' one of the witnesses said in a narration.

Arrest
A report was made to the Nima Police who quickly moved to the location and arrested 12 of the hoodlums, one of them identified as a retired soldier named Sulley.

Police sources told Joy Fm that the ringleader of the 12 persons arrested for ransacking the NPP headquarters confessed that suspended NPP Chairman Paul Afoko masterminded the dawn raid.

Four party supporters have also written and submitted a statement to the Police revealing that they were called and conveyed from Odorkor to the headquarters in Asylum Down under the impression that they were attending a party, only for the rules of engagement to change when they got to the party headquarters.

The statement jointly signed by the four explained that they were part of an estimated 400 supporters who were driven in two buses to the party headquarters for the dawn party.

But after arriving at the headquarters, many suspected they were being deceived after T-shirts were shared to them ostensibly for a different operation.

Many of them backed out, leaving 12 supporters who joined some 15 military men including ex-servicemen aligned with Paul Afoko to ransack the NPP headquarters.

Strangely, Paul Afoko issued a statement through his spokesperson condemning the invasion of the soldiers.

'Mr Afoko condemns in no uncertain terms these incidents and describes same as dents on the party's image. Reports of weapons having been found at the party headquarters is even more worrying,' the statement signed by Nana Yaw Osei, his spokesperson, said.

Police Headquarters
The police took away the suspects to the Police headquarters and not the Nima Police Station, even though the report about the thugs was initially lodged at Nima.

It is significant, DAILY GUIDE learnt, that the Police vehicle which was spotted bizarrely parked close to the party office was the same which conveyed the suspects from the location when the police responded to the distress call.

Kokomlemle Operation
A similar operation by the hoodlums at the Kokomlemle office of the party was interesting in its outcome. The Police who turned up and arrested close to a dozen hoodlums engaged in their mission appeared helpless, not knowing what to do with the suspects.

Chief Inspector Odoom
A certain Chief Inspector Odoom, who led the operation, was overhead reporting to a superior officer about the state of the operation.

He was overheard telling the superior about the number arrested and the fact that they were many and he did not know what to do with them. He was told to release them, to which he obliged even though the suspects were calm and cooperating with the arresting officers.

For those who witnessed the Kokomlemle operation, they were hard-pressed not to question the ostensible police action, given the ease with which the suspects were released because they were too many to manage.

NPP Reaction
In a briefing soon after the incidents, the NPP told the press that 'a group of about 15 armed men in military uniform in military vehicles and police escort vehicles invaded the party office, supervised the vandalisation of the office and claimed to have found guns and other weapons at the office.'

Around 1:00am yesterday, two party security officers and two live-in cleaners heard banging on the gates and upon enquiry, a voice told them it was the police, the party said.

One security man peeped through the gate and indeed saw a police vehicle parked in front of the gate, whereupon the security man opened the gate partially, only to be pushed inside and about 15 armed men in military uniform entered the compound, the party added.

One Identified
Upon entry, one of the four party officials identified one of the 15 uniformed men and called him by name, as the two were neighbours. 'That familiarity gave the party security man some lee way and he managed to sneak outside the compound,' the party said.

There were two or three vehicles parked on the street outside 'and as he crossed the street a voice from one of the parked vehicles, somebody whom he claims he recognised, shouted he should be arrested. He however managed to escape.'

Back inside the compound, the three remaining party officials were made to surrender their phones and herded into the security post, after which they were locked up; but a couple of minutes later, the military uniformed men ordered them out, the narration went on.

Sack of Firearms
'They produced a sack and proceeded to pour the contents out on the floor. The contents included four AK47 rifles and four machetes which the military uniformed men claimed to have found on the compound. The three party officials were then asked to pick the eight weapons and put them back into the sack,' according to the briefing.

Shortly after the gate was opened, another group which was waiting outside, and numbering about 50, was allowed into the compound. Each of them, the media was told, was wearing a red T-shirt with the inscription, 'Peace and Unity'.

They told the three security men that they had taken over the head office security and the party belonged to those who voted in Tamale and nobody else.

Two Groups
The two groups – the men in military uniform and red T-shirted men – proceeded to break into various offices, vandalising and ransacking them.

Hard Drives
At the various offices, particularly at the office of the Director for Elections, computer hard drives were taken, together with several files and other documentation, the media learnt.

Shortly after that, a detachment from the Nima Police Station arrived on the compound, which managed to arrest nine of the red T-shirted boys while the others fled, the party said.

While these events were happening at the head office, a similar operation of siege and vandalisation was going on at the Greater Accra regional office of the party at Kokomlemle, the party disclosed.

Order Restored
The party pointed out that the incidents notwithstanding, the head office was calm and the police were maintaining order.

Questions
In the light of the developments, the party posed the following questions:

• Who authorised this operation by military uniformed men?
• How did they get access to police and military vehicles?
• How did they proceed to search the party office without a search warrant?
• How did they proceed to conduct searches without notice to any official of the party or involving the party security men who were ransacked?
• Why have the police detained a bona fide party security man?
• Is this an attack on Ghana's democracy?

By A.R. Gomda