The Ashanti Regional Police Command has dispatched personnel to the Ashanti Regional head office of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) over fears of clashes between agitating members of the party in Asawase and the regional executives.
Irate supporters of parliamentary aspirant, Masawudu Mubarack, stormed the regional office at Asokwa as he wanted to submit his nomination form but the office was locked, and the supporters believed it was a move aimed at frustrating their candidate.
According to the supporters, they would not leave the premises until the office was opened, but as at the time of filing this report, there was calm with the presence of the police personnel.
The Ghanaian Times gathered that the executives of the party at a meeting allegedly decided not to sell the forms to Mr Mubarack because he is under suspension for violating the party’s constitution ahead of the upcoming parliamentary primary.
“As for Masawudu Mubarack, it will take the national executives of NDC to annul our resolution not to sell the parliamentary primary form to him because a suspended member of our party can’t contest any recognised elections of our party.
“He misbehaved and we wrote to him to explain why he did that and he refused to respect the party structures,’’ a party member who wanted to remain anonymous said and added “it is against the party’s constitution as a parliamentary candidate hopeful to start campaigning while the party has not officially opened the sale of nomination forms or think of publishing the guidelines for the entire electoral processes, yet he (Mr Mubarack) was busy campaigning, he can’t contest in the election.”
Meanwhile, angry Concerned Youth of Asawase NDC, at a news conference in Kumasi, threatened to defect to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) if their preferred aspirant hopeful was blocked from picking nomination forms both at the constituency and the regional office of the party.
Salihu Fatiu, spokesperson for the group, called on the national executives of the party to order the constituency chairman, Alhaji Mutum, regional secretary, Kwame Zu and Isham Alhassan to abstain from all activities concerning the Asawase parliamentary primary.
“We are saying this because the three people mentioned have already demonstrated their bias towards our choice and can’t be trusted, we rather trust the national executives to heed to our concerns,’’ Mr Lalihu said.
FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE, KUMASI
