Bawumia Drove Recklessly

Kweku Baako, Managing Editor of the pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) newspaper, the New Crusading Guide, has hit hard at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, alias Sir John, describing his �wild� claims that the government had plotted to assassinate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, as �irresponsible�. In a message sent to Radio Gold on Tuesday, Mr. Baako asked, �Did Sir John provide evidence to support his wild allegation? In the absence of any material evidence, I declare his allegation irresponsible as what Josiah Aryeh, then the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Gen. Secretary said when Alhaji Mumuni had an accident in 2004. Aryeh and Rojo smelt an elephant and today Sir John is smelling an umbrella. How sad! There are many people like Mr. Baako, who share the same opinion and even feel the NPP General Secretary, has become a deadly plague which has afflicted the opposition party and eating away at its popularity and relevance in national affairs. The Herald�s behind the scene investigations into what led to the NPP General Secretary�s Rwanda-like genocidal comment has revealed that the ambulance was a Good Samaritan�s gesture from the National Security Coordinator, Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, and not a grand plot hatched by President John Mahama with his �Spy Chiefs� to kill Dr. Bawumia. This paper gathered that the National Security Coordinator ordered one of his transport officers to dispatch two of the ambulances to the airport for Dr. Bawumia and his injured aides involved in the near-fatal accident to be taken to hospital. This was accordingly obeyed, with Dr. Bawumia requesting that he be sent to Lister Hospital at Airport Hills near Teshie-Accra. Meanwhile, additional details filtering in also suggest that Dr. Bawumia�s, car containing his press aide, a bodyguard and a driver, was over-speeding. They had incredibly used, according to the NPP General Secretary, 15 minutes to cover a distance of 89.1 kilometers which should have taken him over one hour to traverse Bole in the Northern Region to Banda Nkwata. Again, the said ex-WO Vincent Kwami Tetteh, who the NPP General Secretary suggested was to kill Dr. Bawumia, was not at the airport when Dr. Bawumia arrived in an aircraft. He had closed and gone home shortly after taking part in seeing off the ex-Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and later the Lebanese President Michel Sleiman. Ex-WO Vincent Kwami Tettey, is a Deputy National Security Coordinator at the Kotoka International Airport. He is a senior brother to onetime bodyguard to ex-President Jerry John Rawlings, the late WO Andreas Kofi Tettey. He was at KIA before the Kufuor administration. He was later sacked by the NPP, and brought back when President Mills came to office. The Herald gathered that Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey was at KIA, and had heard about Dr. Bawumia being airlifted to Accra following his accident. The National Security Coordinator�s instruction to his transport officer was that Dr. Bawumia and his injured aides were to be driven straight to 37 Military Hospital in Accra, for medical attention. However, Dr. Bawumia, while comfortably seated in the ambulance, demanded to be taken to the Lister Hospital, a private health facility, which was done with the ambulance returning to the Blue Gate-Castle Annex Osu behind the Accra Sports Stadium. Dr. Bawumia�s demand that he be taken to the Lister Hospital but not 37 Military Hospital, was relayed to the National Security Coordinator, who did not raise any objection to Dr. Bawumia�s choice of where to be treated. The Herald has additionally learnt that out of the two ambulances, it was only one which was used by Dr. Bawumia. He is said to have been driven to the Lister Hospital, with his bodyguard and a light-skinned lady, while the other ambulance being driven by one WO Norgbe returned to the National Security Secretariat. Dr. Bawumia left Bole in the Northern Region for the Ashanti Region when two of the tyres of the vehicle he was travelling on exploded, 15 minutes into the journey, resulting in the accident. The vehicle somersaulted and veered off the road, rolling over a few times. The NPP leader sustained minor injuries but has been treated and discharged by doctors at the Lister Hospital in Accra. The General Secretary of the party, last Monday told Joy News� Elton John Brobbey shortly before an official press conference that national security officials were behind the plot to assassinate Dr. Bawumia and other leading members of the NPP. He suspected the security officials had tampered with the tires of a brand new vehicle on which Dr Bawumia was travelling. According to him, shortly before the accident, the chairman of the party Jake Obetsebi Lamptey also had the tires of his car bursting in a rather bizarre circumstances, adding the plot was a desperate attempt by the NDC and its security officials to wipe out Dr. Bawumia and other key officials of the party who are key witnesses in the ongoing presidential election petition at the Supreme Court. Owusu Afriyie did not understand how an ambulance was present at the airport and without a doctor to carry Dr Bawumia to the hospital, at a time when nobody had alerted the national ambulance service about the accident. He cited the invasion of the NPP research office by soldiers and the burgling of the office of Gloria Akuffo, one of the NPP lawyers directly involved in the election case Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie said John Mahama and his national security officials had failed to stop the �mountain of evidence� gathered by the NPP and had turned their attention on the officials and key witnesses in the case. He said just as biblical Daniel and Abednego all triumphed over evil, Dr. Bawumia and the NPP leaders would escape all assassination plots orchestrated by the NDC. However, the Northern Police Command has meanwhile, asked the NPP to release Dr. Bawumia�s accident vehicle to enable them investigate the cause of the crash. According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Northern Regional Police Command, ASP Ebenezer Tetteh has said: �The police got to the scene later when the victims and vehicle had been taken away�the exact location of the vehicle is unknown.� He further stated: �because the vehicle has been involved in an accident, we need it to help facilitate investigations� the victims also need to come forward and give us the necessary information that we need to hasten investigation so we will be able to conclude whether it was a mechanical error or a human fault.� ASP Tetteh said since the accident occurred in the jurisdiction of the Northern Region; they were obliged to take charge of the investigation. �The matter has been taken over fully by the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU),� he stated. The NPP has taken charge of the damaged vehicle, because according to the Party�s General Secretary, Owusu Afriyie, they do not believe in the Police and will therefore want to conduct their own investigations. But ASP Tetteh says the police will �try and speak to them [NPP] to cooperate with us in whatever way they can so that we can all do a very formal investigation�. The Northern Regional branch of the Motor Traffic Transport Unit (MTTU) has condemned the action of the General Secretary of the NPP, to tow the mangled car of Dr. Bawumia for private forensic investigations. In an interview with Citi News, the Northern Regional MTTU Commander, Supt George Blewushi lamented that the action of the NPP stalwart defied �normal legal procedure.� supt. Blewushi said, �What I know is that if there is an accident at a place, the vehicle should be sent to the nearest police station. If the car does not get to the police station, how do they get an accident report to get claims?� He indicated that �if somebody is saying he doesn�t trust the Police then I don�t know the educational level of that person.� According to him, although the police did not examine the vehicle at the accident scene, there was the need for them to pass on their findings to the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) for further investigations.