MP Pushed And Dragged Out!

The Muslim community at Amanfrom and its environs in the Ga South municipality over the weekend manhandled and sacked the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bortianor/Ngleshie Amanfrom constituency, Bright Demodzi from the Eid-ul Adha gathering, insisting that they do not want to see him at any of their functions. The sin of the beleaguered MP was that he had never attended any Muslim programme in the constituency since he assumed office as the MP for the area. Speaking in an interview with the DAILY HERITAGE, Awel Alhassan, one of the organizers who was mandated to hand over the microphone to the MP who was billed to address the audience, said shortly after the chief Imam, Ali Saleh announced that the MP would be speaking to them, the people began chanting and charged that they would not let him address them. He said when the MP approached him for the microphone, the residents, especially; the youth switched off the power point, punched, dragged and forced him to leave their gathering because they did not need him there. According to Alhassan, the residents� justification was that since he was voted into office as MP for the area, he has never attended any Muslims� program so they did not understand why this time around he showed up. �Before the 2012 general election, the MP was attending our programs, even those that he was not invited, but since he assumed office as MP for Ngleshie/Amanfrom, he does not come to the Zongo community, let alone talk of attending our programs,� he said. On his part, chairman of the Amanfrom Zongo caucus, Haruna Nurudeen claimed that the MP did not follow the party structures because according to him, no National Democratic Congress (NDC) executive can visit the Zongo community and talk to the people without acknowledging the caucus. He explained that even the people who followed him to the gathering were not Muslims, �so how can the MP go to the mosque without any Muslim being part of his team,� adding that he has realized that the MP does not respect the Muslims. �We have no personal issues with him, just that he did not respect the party�s structures and the Muslim community as a whole, because if you are coming to take part in our prayers, at least you need to give us prior notice,� he narrated. He claimed that the MP is an autocratic leader, who does not want any different opinion �when he speaks, he always wants people he can control,� and according to him they have regretted campaigning for the MP. In an interview with the Chief Imam who asked the MP to speak, Mohammed Ali Saleh, in the course of the event they got the information that the MP would be coming so after the prayers, he called for the MP to come and speak to the people, but the youth stood up and forced him out of the gathering. According to him, it was unfortunate that the youth did not allow him to talk and said the elders were not happy about what happened, because according to him the youth should have allowed the MP to talk, �maybe he may show a sign of remorse for neglecting them.� �We the elders of the community have sat down and realized that the youth had tangible reasons but that platform was not a good platform to do that, because it was a disgrace to the Muslim community and we are not happy about what happened,� he lamented. According to him, the elders have apologized to the MP, adding, not that the youth had no right to do what they did but they should not have done it on such important occasion like the Eid-ul Adha, which is a festival of sacrifice. The deputy youth organizer in the area, Ezekiel Mustapha Nanoo, said he was not happy that his MP was manhandled by his colleague Muslims, but said it was self-inflicted, because the MP should have informed them prior to his coming so that they could survey the area to access its safety . He further disclosed that even a day before the festivity, the NDC executives in the area attended a meeting where the MP�s representative was around so at least he should have chipped in that the MP would be visiting the Muslims, but nothing of that sort was tabled during the meeting. Mr. Nanoo said the Muslims were furious because he promised to give scholarship to the Muslim students but since then, they have not set their eyes on him, so he has totally neglected the Zongo community, adding that during the NDC congress, the MP was supporting a Voltarian who was vying for chairmanship against a Muslim, Zackaria Mohammed. It would be recollected that the same MP was chased out of their party congress a couple of weeks ago by the party supporters because he was campaigning for the incumbent chairman against the other two. The MP, however, told the DAILY HERITAGE that he was not perturbed by what happened and sensed that it was orchestrated by people he thought want to contest him during the primary, and believed that all their plans would not work. Latest information reaching the paper indicates that the MP moves around with more than 10 police personnel to avoid a repeat of the assault on him.