Some disgruntled members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the northern region have locked up the party’s regional office in protest of the arrest of Alhaji Abdul Hamid popularly known as Alhaji Gbewaa, a regional Vice Chairman of the party.
The group clouded in red armbands amidst chanting and drumming braced all offices at the regional headquarters with wood and padlocks.
The Northern Regional police command reportedly arrested the Vice Chairman on Monday, January 15, for allegedly assaulting the NDC regional treasurer, Hajia Shamima Yakubu, during a regional executive meeting over the weekend.
The regional treasurer was seen bleeding profusely and her face disfigured due to the assault. She consequently reported the incident to the police and went for medical care at a hospital.
The Vice Chairman was kept behind bars to assist the police investigation which has caused the wrath of the party youth in the region.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Chairman of the NDC Gbewaa Youth, Yakubu Haruna, demanded the immediate release of the Vice Chairman and threatened more mayhem if he is kept in custody by close of today.
The group further threatened to lockdown the NDC offices in the Tamale Central, Tamale South, Tamale North and Sagnarigu constituencies until the Vice Chair is released from police custody.
“…We want the leadership of the party to take steps to ensure the release of Alhaji Gbewaa before sunset and hand him over to us. We were together in the house when they invited him and since yesterday we haven’t heard any news of him and we cannot wait any further” he narrated.
He also threatened no activity of the National Democratic Congress will take place in the northern region unless their demand is met.
Yakubu Haruna emphasized that, “Nobody will hold any party meeting in the region, we will let them [executives] know that the party belong to us and anybody who dares to organize any party activity [unless Alhaji Gbewaa is released], we will let them understand that we control Tamale and the families of such people will not be able to recognize them”.
For his part, the communications office of the group, Salifu Ismael, accused both the regional and national executives of the NDC of masterminding the arrest of the regional Vice Chairman for what he described as a ‘mere’ party misunderstanding.
He said the regional treasurer, Shamima Yakubu, has always been a troublemaker in the party, stressing, “We’ve seen series of misunderstanding in the party before and we’ve never seen a chairman was arrested or something and so we don’t know why this one.”
“For Shamima, this is not the first time she is been causing problems in the party; even if you can remember, just last week, she caused a problem that resulted in a fight between Azoka and one of our party faithful called Tia.”
He continued, “We can count countless times, the problems she has brought upon the party and we are in northern region. She is not the only one in the party neither is she the only female among the regional executives. There are other female executives in the party but why is that she is always the one?
