Supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Kyebi in the Eastern Region last Friday undertook mock exercise of the ‘All-Die-Be-Die’ mantra being espoused by their kinsman, Nana Akufo-Addo.
But for the calmness of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), it would have been bloody, as the NPP supporters did their best for an unwarranted provocation towards the NDC.
As if by grand design, the NPP supporters, led by a sub-chief, blocked various entry roads to Kyebi, the hometown of their flag bearer, all in an attempt to prevent President Mahama from entering the town as part of his campaign tour to the region.
At the grounds where the President was to address NDC supporters, the rostrum erected for the occasion was destroyed by the NPP supporters on Thursday night. Posters of the NDC throughout the town were destroyed while those of Nana Akufo-Addo were displayed overnight.
On the arrival of President Mahama later on Friday, the NPP supporters sent out a clear message of embarking on their brother’s ‘All-Die-Be-Die’ mission when they stormed the rally grounds in NPP T-shirts and other paraphernalia just to disrupt the occasion.
However, the NDC supporters with advice from the party bigwigs would not simply buy into the NPP’s misbehavior.
Later in an address, President Mahama made it clear that the attitude of the NPP supporters was the best in the country’s democratic dispensation.
According to him, Abuakwa has a history of political violence and that was not speaking well of the area.
“It started when Owuraku Amofa was… and this thing is not sending the right message about this area at all,” he said.
Sounding unhappy, President Mahama said that the NPP Presidential candidate has visited his hometown, Bole, in the Northern Region, on three occasions and the people in Bole did not do what Nana Addo’s kinsmen did last Friday.
President Mahama said political campaigns are about trading of issues, ideas and programmes and, therefore, the use of verbal attacks is detrimental to progress and should therefore not be tolerated.
He promised the people of Akyem Abuakwa that they would receive their fair share of development projects and appealed to them to vote massively for the NDC.
“The next time I am coming here as the President of the republic of Ghana, then we would have fixed the Kibi road, which I have seen today in a very deplorable state,” he added.
Source: GhanaWeb
