Monday, August 17, 2015

NDC LEADERS NEARLY LYNCHED

By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, August 17, 2015

Irate National Democratic Congress (NDC) members last week chased out the ruling party’s Greater Accra Regional executives who had paid them a visit.

The incident occurred at the Nima Community Centre, popularly called CDR, in Accra in the East Ayawaso Constituency and was repeated at Adanseman Hotel, Maamobi in North Ayawaso, the same day.

A team of regional executives, including Alhaji Hilla (vice chairman), Hajia Fati (deputy women’s organiser), Hajia Mowa (deputy women’s organiser), Yaw Kundo (treasurer) and Alhaji Haruna Majesty (deputy treasurer), had organised separate meetings with the constituency executives, branch executives and ward coordinators to discuss the party’s biometric registration exercise and the general welfare of members in the constituencies, especially following the apathy that had greeted the process in the two constituencies.

However, the irate NDC members would not even listen to the leaders because they claimed the bigwigs in the party were enjoying themselves at the expense of the foot soldiers and threatened to beat them up.

The disappointed NDC youth allegedly charged on their leaders who had to run away before the unexpected happened. According to the NDC members, they were looking for the regional chairman, Kobina Ade Coker, whom they accused of virtually hijacking everything meant for party members in the region.

The Accra NDC executives had particularly organised the meetings because there was a very low turnout in the two constituencies for the maiden biometric registration exercise which the party says will afford members the chance to vote in the November 7 presidential and parliamentary primaries.

According to DAILY GUIDE’s sources, after the biometric registration, the cards for Greater Accra were reportedly launched at the residence of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Chief Executive, Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, and it was detected that party members in the Ayawaso East and North constituencies had failed woefully to participate in the exercise.

In Ayawaso East for instance, only 35 out of about 450 members were said to have been registered in the biometric exercise.

The party, the source said, was concerned that Nima and Maamobi of all places could record low turnout in the whole exercise and therefore the regional executives were tasked to find out the reasons behind the action.

It was in the process that the foot soldiers told the executives in plain language that they were enjoying at their expense and did not care about the grassroots.

Amid alleged threats, they said they felt neglected as the party had not been able to provide them with jobs and the bigwigs only visited them when there was an impending election.

When reached via telephone, Alhaji Majesty said the party was embarking on an outreach programme to educate members on the biometric exercise.

Just last month during the Id-el-Fitr festival dubbed, ‘Sallahfest,’ climaxing the end of Muslim fasting, the Nima youth vented their spleen on the MP for East Ayawaso,  Naser Mahama Toure, for the problems they were going through.

They hooted at the MP and prevented him from talking at the function after he had mounted the stage.


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