Heavily built men belonging to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) yesterday invaded the offices of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), harassing staff of the Authority and threatening to lock up the offices of the state revenue generation agency.
The actions of the thugs were in response to the appointment of Anthony Kwasi Sarpong as the Acting Commissioner-General of the Authority. Before invading the offices, the youth issued a statement describing the appointment by President John Dramani Mahama as disappointing and called for its immediate withdrawal.
They accused the President of excluding deserving loyalists of the NDC in favour of individuals with ties to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), threatening to physically prevent him from assuming his role as the GRA Acting Commissioner-General.
The lawless NDC thugs, currently on the rampage across the country, alleged that Mr Sarpong was appointed to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG), by former President Nana Akufo-Addo in September 2020 and should not have been appointed by the NDC government.
The invasion of the offices of the GRA and threats to prevent its new Commissioner-General from assuming office follows a series of lawless activities by thugs and supporters of the NDC since the party won the December 2024 general election.
Shortly after the declaration of the December 7 general elections, rampaging NDC youth attacked state institutions, locked up public offices, and forcefully evicted public and civil servants from their homes and offices.
The situation worsened after the inauguration of President Mahama as President on 7th January.
The party thugs have, in recent times, turned their attention to party members and offices following appointments to key positions by President Mahama.
Earlier this week, the failure of President John Dramani Mahama to fulfil his promises to supporters of the party sparked unrest in his hometown. Supporters of the NDC demonstrated against Mr Mahama’s decision not to nominate Alhaji Yusif Sulemana, Member of Parliament for Bole-Bamboi, for a ministerial appointment. They destroyed properties in the area, burnt car tyres in front of the house of Mr Mahama’s father, and threatened to burn the local NDC office.
This happened a few days after eight NDC thugs were shot dead, and several others were injured during an attempt to take over the operations of AngloGold Ashanti, a gold mining company in Obuasi.
On Tuesday, disgruntled supporters of the NDC set fire to the Ho Central constituency office in what was said to be a protest over the President’s failure to appoint anyone from the constituency to a ministerial position.
The perpetrators broke into the office, threw out furniture, office equipment, documents, and other items, and set them ablaze using lorry tyres in the forecourt of the office.
