Mr. Mohammed Baantima Samba, NPP Northern Regional Chairman

The Northern Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mohammed Baantima Samba, has teased the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), saying the conduct of the party’s ongoing branch elections in the region is like the war in Afghanistan.

Addressing Journalists in Tamale on Saturday after the maiden NPP Regional Executive Committee meeting post the party’s internal elections, Chairman Samba said, “Look at our brothers in the NDC, it’s like the Afghanistan war, just their branch elections and it’s like the Afghanistan war and that’s not what as a party you use to win an election”.

NDC is currently conducting their branch elections across the Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East and Upper West regions which constitute zone one of three zones map out for the internal reorganization.

The process has however been bedeviled with accusations of party officials hijacking nomination forms and pockets of agitations in some parts of the northern region.

A number of aggrieved NDC members have also accused some party leaders of handpicking their preferred candidates for the branch positions, especially in the Bimbila constituency.

However, the NDC Northern Regional Director of Elections, Alhaji Mohammed Amin Abio, who debunked the assertions in an earlier interview with THE CUSTODIAN, explained some of the constituencies reached consensus following broad consultations to maintain their old branch executives.

Reconciliation

Meanwhile, the NPP Regional Chairman has said plans are underway to reconcile the party and maintain unity in the aftermath of the internal contest at both Regional and National Delegates Conferences.

“We would constitute a committee in two weeks to move round the various constituencies and bring everybody together, so that we can prepare to be fertile in order to break the 8. We are ready in the northern region to break the 8”, he stressed.

Chairman Baantima Samba has also targeted to win 14 parliamentary seats in 2024 out of the 18 constituencies in the region.

He noted the NPP is united, very resolute, and set to form the majority party in the northern region.