By Prince Acquah
Apam (C/R), Sept. 16, GNA – A bloody melee erupted between members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Gomoa West Constituency during the inauguration of the District Road Improvement Project (DRIP) equipment.
It was over the branding of the equipment by the NPP Parliamentary Candidate (PM), Mr Bismark Baisie Inkoom.
The incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) who is also the NDC parliamentary candidate, Mr Richard Gyan-Mensah, reportedly led a team of supporters to storm the event at the premises of the District Assembly to demand the removal of NPP PCs and posters from the machines.
The case of the NDC was that the machines belonged to the district and the people of Gomoa West and not the NPP candidate and therefore, he did not have the right to put his posters on them for his campaign.
The demand and resistance from both sides culminated in a violent clash which saw some people bleeding.
The feuding parties could be seen wielding machetes, knives, chains, and other lethal weapons and confronting one another brutally in the presence of the police who tried to calm the situation helplessly.
Mr Inkoom, who doubles as the Gomoa West District Chief Executive (DCE), justified the branding of the machines with his posters, citing the branding of buses and E-blocks by former President John Dramani Mahama.
He called for the arrest of the NDC candidate and his supporters and threatened to take action personally if nothing substantially was done by the police.
“We want to see a prosecution by the police. We want to see the matter going to court tomorrow and we are going to make a case against the sitting Member of Parliament,” Mr Inkoom fumed.
GNA