The executives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Ashaiman Constituency of the Greater Accra Region have debunked reports that supporters of the party have taken over the running of some public toilets in the area after the party’s victory in the December 7 polls.
According to the party, no NPP member in the constituency has attacked any member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after the electoral victory of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
They also denied reports that NPP supporters launched an attack on the Member of Parliament (MP) elect for the constituency, Ernest Henry Norgbey of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The NDC MP himself stated publicly that he had not been attacked by NPP members.
Addressing a press conference in Ashaiman, the Constituency Secretary, Emmanuel Chapman Kodam-Takyi, accused the executives of National Democratic Congress (NDC) of being behind the false publications in the media.
“Our investigations so far indicate that executives of the NDC in the constituency are sponsoring this, just to make our party unpopular because prior to the elections they had told Ghanaians that our flagbearer, who is now the President-elect Nana Akufo-Addo is violent and Ghanaians didn’t pay attention to those lies and voted for him so they are doing that to create an impression that Nana Akufo-Addo is indeed a violent person,” he said.
He argued that the NDC executives in the constituency cannot absolve themselves of blame.
“Before the elections, the NDC planted stories in the newspapers through their friends in the media that the NPP was stockpiling weapons in the constituency to be used to cause trouble during the elections.”
“They even went ahead to say that our candidate in the person of Alhaji Yakubu Labaran Barry was also secretly training some people to steal ballot boxes on the day of the elections.”
“We knew this was propaganda to make our party unpopular and we thought it was going to end once the elections were over, but after the elections, we have seen a trend where our opponents are making claims that our supporters have been seizing public toilets in the constituency,” Emmanuel Chapman noted.
According to him, “Supporters of the NPP went to the tollbooth on Tema–Accra motorway and confiscated the monies but they were later handed over to the workers when the police were called to intervene. The party supporters are not from Ashaiman but Tema.”
Mr. Chapman, who condemned the party’s supporters for their action, disclosed that he called on the Ashaiman District Police Commander to arrest any supporter of the party who will attempt to take over any public toilet.
It would be recalled that some supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) seized public toilets after former President John Mills was declared winner of the 2008 presidential election.
From Vincent Kubi, Ashaiman