NDC Gang Attacks Mosquito�s Man

A DEPUTY General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), George Lawson, on Sunday narrowly escaped being lynched by angry party supporters at Atebubu in the Brong Ahafo Region. Mr. Lawson was saved by armed police personnel who moved in swiftly to the scene, Grace FM, an Atebubu-based private radio station, where he was ambushed by the NDC mob for apparently making a disparaging remark about the incumbent MP of the area, Emmanuel Owusu Manu, who lost his parliamentary bid to the District Chief Executive, Sanja Nanja. Eyewitnesses told DAILY GUIDE that the NDC Deputy General Secretary�s car, a Toyota Land Cruiser with registration number GW 9756 Z, had its all four tyres deflated and windscreens smashed. The car would have been set ablaze if the police had not rushed to the scene. During the process, the Constituency Youth Organiser who doubles as the Zoomlion District Coordinator for Atebubu-Amantin, Ali Seidu Garba, was stabbed by an unknown person beneath his eyes. He was hurried to the local hospital where he is currently undergoing medical treatment. The deadly attacks were alleged to have been carried out by NDC faithful said to be loyal to the incumbent MP. They have vowed to protect a recent High Court ruling which declared the election of the DCE, Sanja Nanja, as the party�s 2012 parliamentary candidate, null and void. Supporters of the DCE and the incumbent MP have, since the court ruling, clashed on several occasions, creating uneasy tension in the area. DAILY GUIDE learnt that some constituency executives aligned to the DCE had to seek refuge at the police station where they spent the night because they were afraid of being attacked as they gathered that some youth at Atebubu Zongo had intended to stage another attack in the night. When contacted, the Atebubu District Police Commander, Eric Mantey, told DAILY GUIDE that the matter was under investigation and no arrest had been made as at Monday morning. The Atebubu-Amantin NDC Constituency Chairman, George Kyere-Mensah, described the incident as �terrible� because the thugs, he stated, were bent to shed blood. According to the chairman, Mr. Lawson was in the constituency on a fact-finding mission regarding the just-ended biometric voter registration exercise to ascertain the success or otherwise of the exercise. Mr Kyere-Mensah told DAILY GUIDE that after the discussion with the party executives, the deputy general secretary decided to go to the radio station on Sunday night to respond to issues regarding the controversies surrounding the constituency parliamentary candidates since a High Court had nullified the earlier primaries which elected the DCE, following an action instituted against the party by the incumbent MP. He explained that in the course of the radio discussion, some hooligans aligned to the MP stormed the radio station and started beating up some of the constituency officials waiting in front of the station. Mr. Kyere-Mensah mentioned that by the time the police arrived there, the MP boys had seriously wounded some of the constituency executives, flattened the tyres of the deputy general secretary�s vehicle and even attempted to set it ablaze. The vehicle has since been towed to the police station. When asked whether the deputy general secretary angered the MP�s supporters through his pronouncements, the chairman answered in the negative, but explained that Mr. Lawson only said the MP was at fault by sending the matter about his defeat in the primaries to the court without resorting to the internal mechanisms to seek redress. The chairman alleged that the boys were conveyed to cause mayhem at the station by the District Non-Formal Coordinator, Abubakar Sulemana, who he accused of being an agent of the MP. Some people in the town said Mr. Lawson categorically stated on air that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NDC still recognized Sanja Nanja as the elected NDC 2012 parliamentary candidate for the constituency, despite the High Court�s ruling which nullified his election. Mr. Lawson was reported to have also slammed the MP for seeking redress in the law court instead of the available channels in the party and therefore indicated that he would face sanctions per the NDC constitution. Those comments were said to have infuriated the supporters of the MP who stormed the station to seek the head of the deputy general secretary. Among those in the company of Mr. Lawson at the radio station at the time of the attack were the Constituency Chairman, Mr. Kyere-Mensah, Sanja Nanja, Constituency Youth Organiser Garba, Organiser as well as the Second Regional Vice Chairman, Vida Anim Boatemaa, who hails from Atebubu.