Kennedy Agyapong
KENNEDY AGYAPONG, a top member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has withdrawn from the nationwide ‘Thank you tour’ of the party’s 2024 Presidential Candidate, Dr. Bawumia, over claims that he cannot guarantee the safety of his members.
His withdrawal comes barely 24 hours after a student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, who is said to be his (Ken) supporter, was stabbed in the stomach with a knife when the ‘Thank you tour’ train landed at Bantama on Tuesday.
According to him, Dr. Bawumia invited him to be part of the ‘Thank you tour’ to help deepen party peace and unity, but clearly what is happening during the tour points to him that the party is not practicing the peace and unity that it’s preaching to the public.
“I want to say a big thank you to everybody and because of what happened last night in Bantama that’s why I’m pulling off”, Kennedy Agyapong, who’s a former Assin Central Member of Parliament (MP) pointed out at a hurriedly arranged press conference in Kumasi on Wednesday morning.
He continued, “Myself and my team want to pull out because I don’t think I can protect my team enough. I want to withdraw so Dr. Bawumia will do his campaign tour. I admit that he is the flagbearer so if he is going round and for the sake of unity he invited us and it turns out to be something else, we just have to stay away for them to do their own thing.
“So in brief, all I’m saying is that my team is pulling out but I am still calling for unity in the party”, adding that his withdrawal has not changed his strong love and affection for the elephant family, which he has been a proud and devoted member since 1992.
Intimidation
According to Kennedy Agyapong, happenings during the thank you tour so far, clearly indicates to him that he (Kennedy) was not welcomed to be part of the tour in the first place, therefore he has decided to leave for the sake of party unity and peace.
He particularly mentioned an altercation that he had with the another party bigwig, Kwame Baffuor aka ‘Abronye’ in Berekum and the stabbing of his supporter in Kumasi on Tuesday as enough evidence that some hidden faces were trying to intimidate him so he has decided to withdraw quietly.
“These intimidations will not scare me to leave the party. We built the party from 1992, so as for intimidation they should be rest assured that intimidation will not help them. Because it will not work on me.
“I’m not somebody you can intimidate for me to stay out of the party. I’m still a loyal party member. I’m calling for unity and therefore if I’m preaching for unity, I will not preach violence,” he said.
Justice For Stabbed Student
Mr. Agyepong appealed passionately to his supporters to calm down even in the face of provocation, stressing that he will fight for justice for the stabbed student. “I urged my supporters to calm down but I will make sure justice is done to the student who was stabbed”.
He said he was aware that some people have been publishing false stories, with regards to the stabbing of the KNUST student at Bantama just to make him (Kennedy) and his supporters look bad in the public, saying that those dirty tricks would not work.
“There are false publications that my supporters were fighting over GH¢2000 at Bantama and that led to the stabbing of the student, that is palpable false and they are being published to dent our image but it will not work.
“It wasn’t GH¢2000 it was just GH¢1000 that one Ali Suraj’s security men snatched from the students so it was not my supporters who were fighting over GH¢2000 as being false published in both the social and traditional media. That is not true,” he said.
According to him, one is his supporters gave GH¢1000 to the KNUST students to share and some security men of Ali Suraj snatched the money from the students, which sadly led to the stabbing of one student and the firing of gunshots at Bantama on Tuesday night.
According to him, what happened at Bantama is not good for the image of the NPP so the party should tackle the dicey case in truth, devoid of lies, since such weird acts would eventually give the party a bad image in public.
“In a matter like this, we have to be seen apologetic. If you come out with false publications like that then you are being defensive and it will not help the unity that we want. So I’m pleading with those on the other side managing social media saying all sort of things, I have seen it all.
“I don’t want to respond because on one breadth Kennedy Agyapong is preaching unity and another breadth he is preaching violence, it doesn’t make me the real Kennedy Agyapong that they know”, he emphasized.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Kumasi