The Member of Parliament (MP) for Dormaa West, Ali Maiga Halidu has denied reports that his driver was among the persons who fired gunshots during the violence at Nkrankwanta in the Bono Region.
Supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) clashed in the Bono regional community over the weekend leading to the death of one person.
One vehicle and motorbike were burnt amidst gunshots with two others injured. Three persons have also been arrested as a result.
In the recent development, Alidu Halidu told Citi News that no civilian fired a gunshot at the scene.
“The weapon the NDC and NPP guys had was just a catapult. None of them had a gun on them. All the gunshots that happened on Saturday were done by the security. I have repeated this in all my meetings with the security agencies and now they are aware. In fact, my boys have identified the soldiers who did that. We’ve identified the police officers who shot at the car so it’s not true. When we were at the morgue, any security person from the police command or BNI who came to the morgue to see the body of our late brother said this was done by either a policeman or military man.”
The MP, who has been accused of fueling the incident, claims he was only alerting his agents about a group of Ivorian nationals who were approaching the Electoral Commission (EC) offices to register for the Voters ID card.
“We use motorbikes to patrol the town to see if there’s a place where they could camp them. We alert the immigration people, they’ll go there, arrest them, and send them back to Cote d’Ivoire. This is what they’ve been doing for the entire period. Nothing of this sort has happened. There are no gunshots. The worst it took is when the guy on Thursday came and butchered one of our guys. So when our guys were chased into the bush, the NDC guys came out of the bush, burnt the car and motorbike and walked to our party office to vandalise the place,” he insisted.
The Police, however, say there is relative calm in Nkrankwanta as three persons have been picked up to assist in investigations.
The Bono Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Chief Inspector Augustine Kingsley Oppong, said, “I can tell you that the security situation is relatively calm. And I want to paint this mental picture to everybody that the people there are not in any way fighting each other. The NPP and NDC are those people who are engaging in that. So the first day the community members heard that the 39-year-old Kofi Labatu is dead, there was a little fear in the people. But I can tell you that everything is calm and people are moving about freely.”
