<<Print>>A gunman was arrested by the private security detail at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) headquarters yesterday during the melee which ensued at the place when a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting was about to take place.
The melee was a premeditated or even choreographed operation by a raiding band of thugs intended to stall the crucial meeting to consider a Disciplinary Committee report on the now suspended Party National Chairman, Paul Afoko, by the NEC.
Malam Fari, who was identified as an errand boy of the now suspended Chairman of the NPP, is said to be a resident of Kasoa near Accra.
He had in his possession a powerful American automatic Titan II caliber 32 pistol which perhaps but for his disarming by the party headquarters security men, he could have fired. Subsequent checks showed that the firearm was not registered as required by law.
Considering the cost of purchasing such a firearm, many have made conjectures about the ownership of the Miami, Florida-made pistol whose automatic firing feature makes it ideal for close quarter fighting or in a defensive role.
Information having leaked already about the meeting, the thugs, suspected to be a group called Bolgatanga Bulldogs, had been engaged by someone to go on a mission to disrupt it by storming the main yard. Unfortunately for them, they were repelled by a waiting private security group affectionately called the Invincible Forces, making the work of the police who turned up later easier.
The weapon was found only when he was arrested and searched, as if by intuition.
By the time law and order was restored, a motorbike had been set ablaze and a taxi suspected of carrying some of the thugs, was destroyed by unidentified persons in the ensuing melee.
The Invincible Forces had seen previous actions when attacking thugs were repelled by them.
Earlier, another group tried but failed to enter the party headquarters annex at Kokomlemle to disrupt a meeting by the Disciplinary Committee when it was meeting on a similar subject.
It turned out that the thugs were hired from notorious suburbs in Accra and not from the north as those behind their engagement sought to impress and hype.