<<Print>>

The hopes of a former deputy branch secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress at Omanjor Zanzam in the Anyaa-Sowutuom constituency in the Greater Accra region, Stephen Ahinful, to benefit from the party’s “Heroes Fund” after allegedly been attacked by political opponents has been dashed.

Battling with heath complications for the past four years as a result of the attack on him during the 2012 elections which has led to him losing his left ear, the depressed and dejected NDC activist narrated to The aL-hAJJ how he has been abandoned by a party he devoted all his life to serving until his painful ordeal.

According to Stephen Ahinful, despite several efforts to get officials of the party to come to his aide because he has expended the little resources he has, taking care of himself; Stephen Ahinful tearfully said “none of the big men in the NDC I’ve narrated my story to have offered to help me and I’m here dying slowly.”

“On my way home after our last constituency rally in the Anyaa-Sowutuom constituency on December 5, 2012, I was attacked by some NPP guys. They questioned why I attacked the NPP during my address at our last rally…they started beating me and in the process my left ear was chopped off. I reported the case to the Sowutuom police and they gave me a form to go to the hospital…but up to date they are yet to arrest the guys,” Stephen Ahinful narrated.

He said life has been hellish since his attack; “I have a wife and four children. As I speak to you my children are all in the house because I don’t have money to pay their school fees. I’m in pains…I can’t work. Even I’m struggling to discuss this with you. I was a pastor at the Lord’s Church at Omanjor and a driver at Yutees Security Company. After this problem, my employer sacked me and the church also demoted me because I had engaged in politics. For now, I don’t have anything.”

“The last time, I went to the Amasaman Hospital because I was feeling severe chest and back pain…I have severe headache too. The doctor gave me a prescription and instructed that I go to the 37 military hospital for examination. I’m yet to buy the medicines that the doctor asked me to buy because I don’t have money… not to talk of going to the 37 military hospital. Despite my condition, I’ve been trying to meet some of the NDC executives to help me with money to go to the hospital but nobody is willing to listen to me. I’ve been to the party headquarters but those at the reception will not allow me to see the big men. Now I’m fed up. I’ll not go there again.”

“I don’t need money to spend all I need is something small to pay my medical bills and get my kids back in school. I want to get well so I can start doing something for myself. I’m beginning to lose the trust of my own party members. Those who know how I use to defend this party are now mocking me that I have wasted my time on the NDC and the party is paying me with the wrong coin,” Ahinful narrated amidst tears dripping down his chicks.

The NDC in 2011 launched a ‘Heroes' Fund’ to assist supporters and loyalists who suffer misfortunes, incapacitations or other forms of deprivations in the course of their service to the party.

The fund, General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketsiah noted, would also cater for the needs of dependents of victims who have lost their lives while working in the interest of the NDC as well as non-members of the party in similar situations.

Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, explained the NDC’s formation, the party had thrived on the backs of volunteers who were driven by the spirit of nationalism and patriotism. Many of these individuals, he said, had devoted the best part of their youthful life to the service of the NDC to the neglect of their own economic and social development.

“In the course of campaign activities of the party over the years, some party faithful have been maimed through accidents, vicious attacks by political opponents and shear lack of attention for their personal health during their service to the party,” he emphasized.

However, Asiedu Nketia stated that the NDC as a party until then did not have an official structure to cater for these unfortunate victims, hence the creation of the ‘Heroes' Fund’.

“What we are doing today…is the party’s effort to continue to demonstrate that NDC is an organization worth dying for,” he said.

However, since its creation, not much has been heard about the fund even though the party defended it to the hilt when members of the opposition criticized it as an avenue for encouraging hooliganism.

But Stephen Ahinful said even though it was not his intention to draw from the heroes fund, “so far as the party has created it to take care of problems like mine, it must benefit me too because it is because of the NDC that I find myself in this present condition. I have been chasing officials since 2012, but to no avail. I took the pains to pay my own medical bills when the thing first happened but now I’ve run out of money. I need help seriously.”