The National Democratic Congress has asked its angry members and supporters to remain calm, and that the party leadership will appropriately respond to the violent incident Thursday in the on-going Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.
Chairman of the party, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo told a section of the angry supporters at the NDC headquarters in Accra that they are not cowards as some have suggested, and assured them the party will deal with the issue.
Condemning the violent incident which caused the party to pull out of the by election, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo stated: We are not cowards; we are not cowards at all and we will respond appropriately”.
The chairman did not say when and in what form they would respond to the violent incident which many say has tainted what would have been a peaceful election.
He has in the meantime asked the supporters who he said “are angry and want to retaliate”, to remain calm, saying “Leadership is appealing to them that they should remain calm.
Heavily armed men in masks said to be national security operatives stormed a house behind the La-Bawaleshie Presbyterian Basic 1 School polling station where they allegedly fired some gunshots injuring six persons.
The house is said to belong to the NDC candidate in the by-election, Delali Kwasi Brempong.
Consequent to that incident, scores of party supporters besieged the party’s headquarters to express their anger at the violence that forced the party to withdraw from ongoing by-election.
They demanded of their national executives, action in response to the gunshot incident at their candidate’s house leading to the injury of six persons behind a polling station at La-Bawaleshie Thursday morning.
Their deafening anger forced the chairman of the party Samuel Ofosu Ampofo to temporarily end a news conference called to address the incident which has tainted what would have been a peaceful by-election.
Some party members were also not happy about the decision of the party to withdraw from the election.
The situation resulted in a standoff at the party headquarters. It took the intervention of some national officers of the party to restrain the supporters for the news conference to continue.
“I think that the reaction that you have observed is the anger of our party supporters who are not happy that for a mere by election six of their comrades have suffered various gunshot injuries,” he explained.
Mr. Ofosu Ampofo said condemned “the acts of atrocities, intimidation and attacks that have been meted out against our supporters, party agents and our national officiers and regional officers who were deployed”
For him and the NDC, the incident is a clear indication that Ghana’s democracy is under attack, and urged the President, the national peace council and the diplomatic community to speak on the matter.
“Today is a very sad day for our democracy,” he stated, adding “We have not seen in any election situation where security agencies will wear masks and come to polling stations”.
“We are sending a clear signal to the commander in chief of the GAF and the president of Nana Akufo-Addo that the democracy we have all fought is under siege.
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana