Fear Grips NDC Demo Boys

THE LEADERSHIP and certain members of Volta region�s NDC Youth for Action (YFA) say their lives are in danger. The group recently went on demonstration against the Volta Regional Minister, Joseph Amenowode and Ho Municipal Chief Executive, Isaac Kodobisah over their alleged incompetence. According to the leaders of YFA, Alhaji Bello and Daniel Idikoko and another female member, they have received various threats from anonymous callers who usually castigate them for their involvement in the said demonstration. They said the unknown callers have warned them to desist from criticising the government. Alhaji Bello alleged that a certain NDC Ho Central Constituency Secretary was one of the people who called and threatened him. He said the party official allegedly threatened that he would be arrested if he organised another demonstration against the minister or government. This was disclosed during a press conference at Ho on Monday when the group addressed a press conference to react to the party�s suspension of their two leaders and to reiterate why they want Messrs Amenowode and Kodobisah removed from office. The press conference was also in reaction to an earlier one held by NDC Volta regional executives last Friday during which the party�s Regional Executive Committee (REC) upheld the suspension of Bello and Idikoko. At that meeting, the REC noted that the two would later be put before a Disciplinary Committee for a fair hearing. Meanwhile in a statement signed by Alhaji Bello and Daniel Idikoko, the Pro-NDC youth group described the NDC Volta regional executives� press conference as unwarranted and an attempt by a group of people to hide behind the REC which is supposed to be constituted by all 22 regional constituency chairmen and secretaries plus the functional regional executives, to save certain people. They noted that their demonstration was not against President Mills but only to give him a clear picture of the situation on the ground and also to petition him to dismiss the regional minister and Ho MCE due to �their actions and inactions, omissions and commissions, incompetence, corruption, greed, arrogance and disrespect for our revered chiefs��which we want to state emphatically has brought the Atta-Mills led NDC government into ridicule and unwarranted attacks.� The statement also expressed the group�s discontentment with the way their petition has been handled so far saying �we were hoping we were going to hear a favourable response from the seat of government but unfortunately the regional office of the party has taken the sail out of the mouth of H.E. the President.� It noted that the concerns raised in Ho as well as those of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs and many others across the region should not be considered a threat but rather a �wake-up call for the government and leadership of the party to listen to the grievances of the people� if the NDC government is really as listening and as caring as it claims. The YFA also described the suspension of the two leaders as illegal since the Ho central constituency secretary did not have the mandate to convene a press conference without the consent of the chairman, let alone suspend any member of the party without a hearing by a Disciplinary Committee. The group added that the fact that the regional chairman and a minute section of the REC have upheld the suspension did not make it legitimate but rather an affront to the constitution of the party. More so, it only �shows the weakness and the level at which the party in the region has been driven to.� The YFA has therefore called for a radical shakeup before the 2012 general elections take off. They expressed concern about how poorly the regional executives are handling the NDC�s affairs in the region which they said was dwindling the party�s fortunes ahead of 2012. They challenged the president and the national executives to undertake an objective survey across the region to ascertain whether the confidence in the NDC prior to the 2008 elections was still intact. �Any well-meaning and loving member of the NDC in the region would come to terms that things are not well with the party so therefore we implore government and the party leadership to urgently investigate the matter to quickly restore the traditional confidence the region has in the NDC as the only party that can redeem Ghana and Volta region from poverty, squalor and under development,� the statement noted.