Election 2020: ‘You can drink all the water in the sea you’ll lose’ – Ursula tells NDC

The NPP MP for Ablekuma West, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, has suggested her party’s success in the 2020 general elections is a fait accompli.

According to her, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) “can go and drink all the water in the sea they won’t win this election. They won’t,” she said in an interview on an Accra-based TV station.

Explaining the rationale behind her optimism, Ursula said “I am confident because of the work we have done”.

“However, in the most unlikely event that they (NDC) win, it is not going to happen, but that would have been the choice of the electorates. Life will go on. It will not be the end of the world.”

Ursula, who is also Minister of Communication said her opponent had no chance in her constituency.

This she said was due to the development she had introduced in her jurisdiction.

“Our roads, we’ve got a new municipality, we’ve got two new police stations, we’re building the maternity wing for the Dansoman Polyclinic, we’re getting a municipal hospital, …you name it. I’ve done a hello lot of work in the constituency,” she said while listing some of the projects she had undertaken in her area.

Election-related violence

It would be recalled that in October 2020, some members of the governing NPP and NDC clashed in the Odododiodoo constituency when the latter was embarking on a health walk.

The incident left some supporters with injuries.

The Sunday morning attack occurred on the Atta Mills Highway, at a junction called ‘One way’.

Videos of the melee which emerged on social media showed supporters in attires of both parties and other party paraphernalia throwing stones, bottles, and other items at each other on the street.

Reacting to the violence which broke out in Odododiodoo, Madam Ursula condemned the act while calling for calm among all supporters of the various political parties.

“All this political violence we unleash on ourselves is completely unnecessary. Elections are just contests of ideas.”

Odododiodoo constituency is notorious for election-related violence.

In 2012, Madam Ursula Owusu Ekuful was allegedly assaulted in that constituency by a gang suspected to be members of the opposition NDC.

She accused the NDC Nii Lante Vanderpuye who was then the NDC Parliamentary Candidate of masterminding the attack on her.

Ursula said she was touring the constituency to urge NPP supporters in the area to register when she was attacked by some heavily built men she claimed were followers of Nii Lante Vanderpuye.

Nii Lante admitted he sent thugs to assault me

Almost eight years after Ursula was allegedly assaulted at the Odododiodioo constituency, she revealed that the MP for the area admitted he sent the thugs to assault her when she visited his area.

“He [Nii Lante Vanderpuye], hired thugs to assault me in that constituency. I know [because] he has admitted that.”

“He sent emissaries to come and apologize to me when we got back to parliament. For three years, he sent people after me to admit that what he did was wrong and to apologize to me. I get emotional and I’ve tried to move beyond that because what I told him was that he was my mate in Legon.

“If I had died, he would have shown up at my funeral shedding crocodile tears knowing that he was responsible for my death,” Ursula Owusu Ekuful said in an interview with TV3.

Meanwhile, theghanareport.com has placed four calls and a message to the MP for Odododiodioo, Nii Lante Vanderpuye his response, but have gone unanswered.