The woes of the opposition National Democratic Congress are deepening in the northern region as sections of the party’s grassroot pitch camps and throw salvos at each other.
The melee is between groups of the NDC 2020 presidential candidate, John Mahama and the Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu.
At a news confab in Tamale on Monday, 6 September, 2021, a pro Mahama group, “Coalition of Youth Groups in the Northern Region” chronicled a number of instances Mr. Haruna Iddrisu recruited them to cause mayhem against the former President and some executives of the party in the region.
Alhassan Abdul Jalal, Secretary of the Coalition said, “On the 17th January, 2013, some of our members were recruited by him (Haruna Iddrisu) through his assigns to burn everything that had John Mahama on it. Billboards and everything. They explained that John Mahama hates him and for that matter intends to take him out of government.”
He continued, “And the only thing that could stop it is to threaten John Mahama through violent riots. Certainly this was orchestrated to put John Mahama in a bad light. Unbeknowning to us about his hatred for John Mahama, we executed it as directed”.
The statement added, “Again, on the 3rd of November 2018, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu through his assigns contracted some of us to attack and lynch those elected regional executives he felt were ardent supporters of John Mahama and as such were not dancing to his treacherous tune. In a brutal manner, we gullibly attacked the Regional Secretary (Sualesu Beawurebe), the Regional Vice Chairman (Alhaji Velim), the Regional Communications Officer (General Amin) and others.”
According to the group, these violent attacks allegedly instigated by the Minority leader were in furtherance of his agenda to create a false impression that he is the most influential politician in the north, adding, “So that in the event that John Mahama fails and bows out through his evil machinations, he will appear as the all-powerful political figure in the North with the potential of serving as a running mate or flagbearer.”
“It is to this end that we will like to state without any equivocation that Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, the minority leader has lost every influence in the North, if he ever has any. Those of us he was using to gullibly attack people have realized that he means no good for John Mahama and the NDC. And so we will never allow him to use any of us in such reckless manner to further is already failed ambition” he stated.
Nonetheless, the youth implored the party at all levels to call the Tamale South MP to order, threatening anything less will incur their wrath as youth of the NDC.
“He should know that whatever he has sown shall grow in the nature that he sowed it. And that, John Mahama is a tree that God has planted, so his evil machinations cannot uproot that tree. Never!” they warned.
Meanwhile, in an interview with THE CUSTODIAN, an apostle of the embattled Haruna Iddrisu, who is the Tamale South Communications Officer of the NDC, Abdul Ganew Sandow refuted the allegations, stating the Minority leader has spent more resources into the campaign of Mr. Mahama than other NDC former Minister in the region.
Notwithstanding this, he said the allegations of the Coalition lacks merit and challenged them to report same to the Ghana Police Service for investigations.
