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Market fires: NPP fingers NDC as police pick up suspect

The New Patriotic Party is pointing fingers at the National Democratic Congress, accusing it of being behind recent fire outbreaks in markets

Story Highlights
  • "Beyond the NDC National Chairman, mention can also be made of other leading members of the NDC including their 2020 flagbearer, John Mahama as well as their party executives, who are also engaged in this exercise of inciting their base to create mayhem and make the country ungovernable particularly after their humiliating defeat at the 2020 polls."

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) is accusing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of being behind recent market fires around the nation.

The NPP general secretary, John Boadu, says the main opposition party is on the record as having stated its intention to destabilise Ghana. The NDC national chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, is standing trial for making this very threat.

“For instance, the NDC national chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, is on record to have incited his party foot soldiers to undertake a series of ‘overt and covert operations’, including setting markets ablaze and embarking on armed robbery attacks in order to create fear and a sense of insecurity in the country,” a statement from Boadu said.

“Ofosu-Ampofo is of course being prosecuted in court for this treasonable comment, and the court has established as a matter of fact that it was his voice in that leaked tape.

Let it burn

“Beyond the NDC national chairman, mention can also be made of other leading members of the NDC, including their 2020 flagbearer, John Mahama, as well as their party executives, who are also engaged in this exercise of inciting their base to create mayhem and make the country ungovernable particularly after their humiliating defeat at the 2020 polls.

“Equally, social media is awash with messages from some misguided members of the NDC, threatening to burn markets in order to ventilate their outrage at the outcome of the 2020 elections, which they are disputing.

“As a matter of fact, there is an abominable Facebook comment which has been making rounds on social media attributed to one of their guys, who used the name Daniel Tee, threatening that ‘we are burning down Kantamanto tomorrow’.

“He made this comment on 15 December and, lo and behold, on 16 December these hoodlums executed the act and burned down the Kantamanto market,” Boadu said.

“They want to torture him”

Meanwhile, one Eric Adoglah, a driver for the NDC’s deputy general secretary, Peter Boamah Otokunor, has been arrested over the recent market fires.

“…We [his lawyers] have been denied access to him, and they are not even telling us where he is and when I can access him,” Adoglah’s counsel Victor Adawudu told a reporter for Citinewsroom.

“This is very unacceptable, and we cannot be intimated like that. I know he is with the BNI [National Investigations Bureau], but they want to torture him and all before giving us access to him.”

Good job

In his statement, Boadu also commended the police “for arresting one of the suspected arsonists behind the Kantamanto fire outbreak, by name Daniel Dah Kormlah, who had been identified as an active member of the opposition NDC. We also implore the police to immediately arrest Daniel Tee together with all his accomplices and make them face the full rigors of the law,” he urged.

“It cannot be gainsaid that the burning of the nation’s market can only be an execution of their widely publicised ‘overt and covert operations’ as proclaimed by their leaders before, during and after the 2020 general election which have, [and] rightly so, been described as the most transparent and peaceful elections in our recent history.

“On account of this, the NPP, while condemning these arson attacks, is also calling on the security agencies, particularly the Ghana Police, to take immediate steps in investigating and apprehending all the perpetrators of these callous acts. Equally, the party is urging our men and women in uniform to keep an eagle eye on these misguided elements following their threats to burn more markets in the coming days until and unless their 2020 presidential candidate is declared the winner of the election.

“Already, they have burnt Odawna Market; burnt Kantamanto Market on two occasions; burnt Koforidua Market; burnt Kaneshie Market; and just yesterday, they set fire at the Asankragua Market. Which market is next? How many more markets are we waiting for them to burn? Certainly, we cannot sit unconcerned and see them destroy the livelihood of thousands in the name of politics.

“They must be called to order, and the time to act is now. Meanwhile, the NPP wishes to use this occasion to reiterate its sympathy to all the affected persons who have lost their valuables and livelihood in these arson attacks, and assures them that the party stands with them in these trying times and will assist them in their pursuit for justice,” Boadu’s statement said.

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