NDC, NPP supporters clash at Wulensi

Seven persons believed to be supporters of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) sustained  injuries  at a rally at Tinanigeria in the Wulensi Constituency in the Northern Region last Thursday evening  when they were attacked by some armed men alleged to be members of  the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) .

The Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ebenezer Tetteh, who confirmed the clashes between the two parties, could not give the exact issue that triggered the clashes.

He said the rally was organised by the NPP Parliamentary Candidate for the area, Mr George Maban, last Thursday evening but he failed to notify the police prior to the rally.

Police

ASP Tetteh, however, told the Daily Graphic that supporters of the two parties attacked one another with sticks and stones resulting in the injuries of the seven persons, whom he said were rushed to the Bimbilla Government Hospital for treatment.

Aside from those who got injured during the clashes, ASP Tetteh said the windscreen of the official vehicle of the district chief executive for Wulensi also got broken.

He said it took a reinforcement team from Bimbilla to the area to restore calm, but no arrest had been made so far, adding that the police had beefed up security in the area to forestall any reoccurrence while investigations into the clashes were still underway.

This is the third time such an incident of that nature between the two parties has occurred in the constituency within the month of November.

However, eye witnesses’ accounts of the incident indicated that supporters of the NPP were holding a rally at Tinanigeria when some armed men, suspected to be members of the ruling NDC, attacked them during the rally, resulting in the injuries of the seven people.

They, however, did not know what might have provoked the attacks but they alleged that the attackers, who wielded cutlasses, stones and other offensive objects, assaulted the members of the NPP whom they claimed were unarmed as at the time of the attack.

Efforts to get the NPP parliamentary’s side of the story was unsuccessful as  he could not be reached on phone.

Flashpoints

Out of a total of 31 constituencies in the Northern Region, 26 of them have been identified as violence-prone areas by the police in the region, with the Wulensi Constituency being one of them.

Again, the region has a total of 2,688 polling stations, with 611 identified as flashpoints for the December 7 polls.