Haruna Iddrisu
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to be on fire after the national executives nudged out the party’s parliamentary leadership.
MP for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu and Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka were removed as Minority Leader and Minority Chief Whip by the party on Tuesday in a letter addressed to Speaker Alban Bagbin.
This has since caused a surge in anger by supporters of the NDC at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region and Tamale in the Northern Region, with some burning tyres amidst threats.
In the Ashanti regional capital, scores of NDC members from the Asawase Constituency besieged the party’s regional office to voice their anger against the decision taken by the national executives.
The aggrieved NDC supporters, who wore red armbands, openly castigated the party’s leadership and burnt tyres to express their anger at the decision.
They gave the party leadership an ultimatum to reinstate the Asawase MP, in particular, as the Minority Chief Whip before Parliament reconvenes on February 7, 2023.
They threatened to come out in a brutal and bloody fashion if their demand for reinstatement was ignored.
The timely intervention of the police brought the situation under control, but that was after the blood-thirsty supporters had set fire into tyres.
The NDC members later handed a petition to the party’s leaders in the region, calling for the reinstatement of Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka.
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of NDC, Augustus Nana Kwasi Andrews, called for calm and asked the party members not to indulge in lawless enterprise.
“I beg you in the name of God to calm down. Please if you indulge in lawlessness, definitely the security agencies would apprehend you for prosecution, which we don’t want,” he stated.
He pledged to send the petition to the leadership of the party, asserting that the NDC needs total unity to be able to win the 2024 general election.
“We can’t fight among ourselves. Such weird behaviour would distract us from realising our ambition of winning the 2024 elections,” he said.
Tamale
In Tamale, some supporters of the NDC were equally upset by the decision to remove Haruna Iddrisu as the Minority Leader.
Calling themselves as Coalition of NDC youth in Tamale, the party faithful expressed disdain about the action of the NDC National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia.
They threatened to vote ‘skirt and blouse’ if the leaders failed to heed to their call.
They asked the NDC Chairman and the General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey not to step foot in the north to campaign for vote.
But another youth group calling itself Loyal Members of NDC has welcomed the decision.
“We wish to express our appreciation and support to the national executives for the timely decision made to change the NDC leadership front in Parliament.
“It is a very welcomed decision that would inject fresh energy and dynamism in the NDC Parliament front,” they stated at a press conference.
According to the group, there is no better time to have made such changes in Parliament than now, adding that it will give the party enough time to build consensus for victory in 2024.
“We expect that the national executives and new leadership in Parliament to recapture power from the NPP in the 2024 elections, increase parliamentary seats in the Northern Region to at least 16 as well as presidential votes to 95%, promote dialogue and unity in the party in the Northern Region, be honest beyond any form of trade/business/profiteering in the House of Parliament among others,” they said.
The Convener of the Loyal Members of the NDC group, Mohammed Murtala, urged the leadership to be courageous and humble to build consensus within the Minority caucus.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah & Eric Kombat