The Northern Regional Police Commander, ACP Angwubutoge Awuni has served notice that the outvoted New Patriotic Party Northern Regional Chairman, Yakubu Addo, may be arrested if investigations establish that he was behind violent acts that attended the party’s Regional Delegates Conference on Sunday.
ACP Awuni told Hot 93.9FM over the phone that two persons have been arrested and granted bail pending investigations into the acts of violence that saw two persons sustained injuries suspected to be gunshot wounds.
The police boss says it is unclear yet what may have injured the Tamale Metropolitan Police Commander, ASP Ceasar Abanga and a Tamale Polytechnic TESCON executive, Mohammed Abdul Waris on Sunday when a scuffle ensued between supporters of the incumbent NPP regional chairman and the police when the former group attempted to storm the conference grounds.
ACP Awuni said medical assistants at the Tamale Teaching Hospital where the two persons received treatment told him they needed X-Ray scans to determine what implement may have injured the two men.
He said ASP Ceasar Abanga was treated and discharged and returned to post on Sunday evening after something graced the back of his arm. The injury was not deemed very serious.
Narrating what triggered the scuffle, ACP Awuni said prior to the NPP conference, the police had been tipped off of a possible outbreak of violence allegedly to be championed by the incumbent chairman, Yakubu Addo. According to Police information, Yakubu Addo who was seeking to be re-elected, was to cause confusion at the conference should the election of regional executives turn against him.
Following the tip-off, ACP Awuni said security was beefed up and conference organizers agreed with police that only accredited persons were to be allowed access to the RADACH Memorial Centre, venue for the conference.
The police boss said the party chairman arrived at the congress grounds with about 50 macho men, and while he counted about seven in the chairman’s car seeking to enter the conference venue, none was accredited or bore any sign that they were attending the conference.
ACP Awuni said he personally approached the party chairman to escort him to the conference hall, however he insisted on storming the venue with his companions and therefore refused to go with him.
Awuni said following the disagreement, he left the chairman and headed for the hall, however he realized that the macho men were later attempting to force their way into the conference, following which he ordered the firing of teargas to ward off the intruders, some of who were also throwing stones at the police.
He said moments after the police drove the group away, the latter persisted in throwing stones into the ‘yard’ and the police responded by chasing them away.
ACP Awuni said the entire conference was largely successful apart from the fracas with the incumbent chairman who he said should have been a bit more responsible. “If he was a bit responsible, I don’t think these things would have happened but he was not.”
He cautioned that at the moment residents of Tamale are tired of violent conducts and anyone who thought he could take the law into their hands to dare the police.
Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
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