The Annual Delegates Conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Subin Constituency in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, was nearly marred on Friday morning.
This was after some stoutly-built men, who were engaged by the party to provide security at the venue, attempted to prevent the NPP Chairman of the area, Francis Kwabena Boamah, from entering the GNAT Hall.
Mr. Boamah became incensed after the machomen allegedly shoved him in an embarrassing manner for some minutes.
The confrontation between the machomen and the NPP Chairman escalated, but luckily order was finally restored to the place following the swift intervention of armed policemen.
Mr. Boamah, who was determined to enter the event venue, was eventually allowed to enter the GNAT Hall, where about 800 delegates of the ruling political party had already taken their seats.
Machomen Apology
The machomen, after realizing that Mr. Boamah was the NPP chairman for the constituency, rendered unqualified apology to him in the presence of the media.
The nasty incident, which attracted the crowd to the scene, happened at the blind side of Eugene Boakye Antwi, the Subin Member of Parliament (MP), who was in the venue with other dignitaries.
The programme was organized to enable the leadership of the party in the constituency take stock of the activities of the party over the past year and also plan for the years ahead.
Chairman’s Anger
Mr Boamah, later in an interview with the media, claimed he was not invited to the programme, which ideally should have been organized by him and other party executives.
He said even though he had no invitation, he decided to attend the programme to prove to Mr Boakye Antwi that nobody can sideline him from the party, adding that the conference was illegal since it was organized by the MP.
Mr. Boamah said he only wanted to prove to the MP that nobody can kick him out of the NPP, adding that he had accepted the apology of the machomen that nearly assaulted him.
MPs Response
Mr. Antwi stated that he and other dignitaries were not aware of the incident since they had already taken their seats.
He said it was unfortunate that the machomen, who didn’t know Mr. Boamah, tried to prevent him from entering the venue, adding that he had no hand in the incident.
The Subin lawmaker, who is also the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, debunked Mr. Boamah’s allegations that he (Eugene) was trying to sideline him from the party, noting that he only performed his duties as the MP.
“When I was initially elected as the NPP parliamentary candidate, Mr. Boamah and some other people in the party, who were not happy about my victory, decided not to work for the party, so they left everything to me.
“I took the challenge in good faith and worked with other executives that have the interest of the NPP at heart and God-willing we won massively for our dear political party.
“Interestingly, after the 2016 victory Mr. Boamah and his cohorts, who abandoned the party, have suddenly made a sharp U-turn, and they now want to take over the management of the party from me which will not work.”
Machomen Apology
Meanwhile, the machomen, who tried to prevent Mr Boamah from attending the programme, apologized to him after they got information that he (Boamah) was the NPP chairman for Subin.
They said the party engaged their services to prevent unauthorized people from entering the venue to create problems.
“Since Mr. Boamah was not holding an invitation card, we did our job by preventing him from entering the venue.”
From I.F. Awuah Jnr., Kumasi