The leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region has uncovered disturbing plans by the NDC to adopt violent tactics in a desperate bid to intimidate voters and disrupt the electoral process, particularly in the Ashanti Region.
Addressing the press in Kumasi, Francis Adomako, Regional Organizer of the NPP, disclosed that information available to the NPP reveals that for several months, the NDC has been training thugs in communities, including the Obuasi East Constituency, under the guise of private security training, in an attempt to deploy them to disrupt electoral processes, particularly in the Ashanti Region, which remains the NPP’s stronghold.
The party indicated that it has reports of the NDC Committee on Mining, led by Tony Aubynn, former Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission, holding a secret meeting with some pro-NDC small-scale miners at the conference hall of Mawuli Hotel in Bidiem in the Obuasi West Municipality.
He noted that one of the aims of the meeting was to recruit members of the group to form part of the NDC’s Eagle Force vigilante group, who will be deployed to some NPP polling stations to cause mayhem on election day.
He added that the NPP is also aware of mobile money transactions directly linking leading NDC members to payments made to these trained thugs.
According to the NPP, they have also discovered plans by the NDC to use ambulances to transport weapons to thugs on election day, as well as plans to deploy thugs on motorbikes to shoot indiscriminately in NPP strongholds to create fear and panic, suppress voter turnout, and disrupt the counting process.
Mr. Adomako indicated that the party is well-informed that some leading NDC members, including a retired Commissioner of Police, are coordinating efforts to escalate insecurity in the Ashanti Region and other NPP strongholds, including engaging armed robbers and other criminal elements to increase cases of robbery and kidnapping in the days leading up to the elections.
The revelation by the NPP comes on the back of recent public actions and statements made by leaders and members of the NDC suggesting readiness for violence.
It would be recalled that on November 4, 2024, the NDC launched a vigilante group, the “Azorka Boys,” in the Asawase Constituency in the Ashanti Region.
These individuals, known for their violent activities in previous elections, are reported to have been tasked with intimidating voters in the Ashanti Region to undermine voter confidence and disrupt the electoral process.
In 2019, the flagbearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, addressing NDC supporters in Adaklu in the Volta Region, stated that the “NDC has a revolutionary root, and when it comes to unleashing violence, no one can beat us to that.”
In December last year, Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Mustapha Gbande, advised voters to “carry cutlasses” with them when casting their ballots in December 2024.
Last month, Mohammed Ibrahim, popularly known as “Kanawu,” a branch organizer of the NDC in Sowutuom, was sentenced for threatening violence and spreading fear ahead of the 2024 General Elections.
The NPP has, however, assured the people of the region that it will use all lawful means to safeguard the sanctity of Saturday’s electoral processes and defend Ghana’s democracy.
According to the party, though it is assured that the security forces are on top of their job and Ghanaians have very little to worry about, the NPP will not sit unconcerned and allow the NDC to use mayhem and violence to disrupt the election.
Mr. Adomako added that the NDC’s plans to use mayhem to disrupt the election are due to the fact that they are seeing defeat staring them in the face due to the poor treatment it meted out to the people of the Ashanti Region while in office.
The party indicated that the NDC cannot boast of a single inherited project it completed within its eight years of being in power from 2009 to 2016, contrary to the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Bawumia government, which has, within the last eight years, completed six out of the seven hospital projects it inherited and also completed three major market projects.
Mr. Adomako added that works are currently ongoing on three major projects the government inherited, which are the 800-bed Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) teaching hospital, the Boankra Inland Port, and a 700-bed maternity block at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).
He stated that the many projects completed by the NPP and the new ones commenced by the government convince the people of the region that they were better off under another NPP government than an NDC government, particularly under John Mahama, who was part of the NDC government that abandoned the region for eight years.