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The fracas that has set blazing fire within the Ashanti Regional National Democratic Congress (NDC) is turning out issues that cannot be resolved easily.

What led to the serious fighting among some factions within the Ashanti NDC has a long history that must be told so that the problems confronting the Akatamanso family, in the stronghold of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), can be addressed to avoid disaster in the 2016 elections.

Although the region is the stronghold of the NPP, the NDC made massive political gains in 2008 and 2012 that galvanized the party to victory.

The Enquirer has been able to find out that Mr. Samuel Sarpong, the Regional Minister whose appointment has been withdrawn, had endured several months of sabotage and disrespect, while he was in office.

It has now come up that plans to make him look bad were hatched as far back as 2009 when Mr. Sarpong was named as a contender to the position of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Chief Executive officer.

At the time, Mr. Joseph Yammin, who was Mr. Sarpong’s Deputy, was alleged to have organized some NDC supporter’s to demonstrate during the vetting of Mr. Sarpong for the Kumasi Mayor position.

Mr. Yammin at the time had also applied for that same position.

Interestingly, Mr. Sarpong was appointed and during his term as the Kumasi mayor, he worked assiduously winning lots of admirers within and outside the NDC.

The biggest issue that has led to their recent huge fight occurred at the time when president Mahama swapped Regional Ministers few days after appointing them.

The Enquirer gathered that when Mr. Sarpong was posted to the Central Region, a plot was hatched never to bring him back to the Ashanti Region.

The plot allegedly was masterminded by persons, including Mr. Eric Opoku, Mr. Yammin, Mr. Kojo Bonsu and the NDC Regional Chairman, Mr. Yaw Obimpeh. The plot was to make sure that Mr. Opoku was brought to the Ashanti Regional and retained in that region.

At the time, things were made in a way that when Mr. Opoku was sent back to the Brong Ahafo Region, he was asked by the Chief of Staff, Mr. prosper Douglas Bani, to have oversight responsibility of the Ashanti Region.

Mr. Sarpong was therefore made redundant until the Conference of Regional Ministers, which at the time was chaired by Mr. Bani for the right thing to be done.

The Enquirer gathered that Mr. Opoku had time and again allegedly expressed interest in coming to the Ashanti Region.

The internal regional elections to have party executives also created lots of dislike for Mr. Sarpong, when he decided not to support the eventual winner, Mr. Obimpeh.

The Enquirer gathered that the NDC Regional chairman with support from some youth of the party raised constant hell over all that the minister was doing.

In fact, the recent allegations against Mr. Sarpong that he had ordered the district chief executives to spend money on the party’s communicators were cooked by some NDC top guns in the region.

The current KMA boss is also reported to be part of the machinations that had seen both Mr. Yammin and Mr. Sarpong removed by the President.

NDC party insiders in Kumasi told The Enquirer yesterday via mobile phone that Mr. Bonu never saw Mr. Sarpong as his boss.

The party insiders hint that simple moves by Mr. Sarpong to get things done right in the region were thwarted by Mr. Bonsu.

Amazingly, Mr. Sarpong is a cadre and very well-known within the corridors of the NDC, a simple fact that those who wanted him twisted in the eyes of the party youth had failed to consider.

Party gurus in the Ashanti Region are in anxious mood, as the current happenings would affect the chances of the NDC in making further gains come 2016.