I’m not moved by election curses – MP
THE Member of Parliament (MP) for Offinso South, Ben Abdullah Banda, says he is unfazed about the curses his constituency executives invoked on him.
“For the curses that they invoke, I have not committed any wrongdoing. I’m not perturbed at all. And I believe my followers are not also perturbed. You only get perturbed when you have committed a wrongdoing,” he said on Starr FM.
Last week, some constituency executives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Offinso South rained curses on some national executives and their MP after their preferred candidates were disqualified ahead of the party’s primaries.
The party has set June 20, 2020, for its primaries to elect persons to represent the party in the general elections.
The disgruntled party folks protested the disqualification of the incumbent’s contender, Dr. Isaac Yaw Opoku.
The Leader of the group, Offeh Collins Kingsley, a.k.a ‘Hon. Bonti’, who performed the ritual at the bank of the Offin River said: “We invoke a curse on John Boadu, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Wontumi) and any NPP executive if they attempt to declare Ben Abdallah Banda unopposed to prevent any of the two men from contesting him. His children, wife, and his extended family members must be annihilated”.
Supporters of disqualified NPP aspirants invoke gods to strike party executives
They offered schnapps, a fowl, and a sheep as a sacrifice to the gods.
Ben Abdullah wants the party to sanction all the executives who invoked the curses, arguing their actions constituted gross misconduct.
“What they’ve done is misconduct. If you have any grievance against a party member, you don’t have to do what they did. One of them is an Assemblyman, and another is a coordinator of an electoral area.
” [This is] an assemblyman belonging to the party whom I have assisted on a number of occasions. Another person, an electoral coordinator who should know better [than] taking the law into their own hands, is [involved] in the wrongdoing.”
Several aspirants have raised concerns that the regional party leadership is frustrating their efforts in a bid to allow some incumbent MPs to go unopposed.
The party’s First Vice National Chairman, Mr. F.F Anto is reported to have said incumbent MPs in the Ashanti Region would go unopposed in the 2020 general elections. That decision has since sparked tension in various constituencies.
The delegates accused the party’s national executives of imposing candidates on them. Despite the numerous protests which greeted the party’s decision.
The party’s General Secretary, John Boadu, insisted that the acrimonies about the disqualifications had been dealt with.
With barely six months to the country’s general elections, some disqualified aspirants have declared their intentions to go unopposed.
One of such is Bernard Oduro Takyi, a parliamentary aspirant in the Sunyani West constituency in the Bono region.
The Mandela Washington Fellow pointed to a scheme inside the party to deny him the chance to contest the incumbent Labour and Employment Minister, Ignatius Baffour Awuah.