‘Lawra chiefs did not boycott President’s tour’
The upper west regional communications team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described reports in a section of the media that Lawra chiefs boycotted the President’s “accounting to the people” tour as full of inaccuracies and outright lies and fabrications which is being peddled for selfish parochial interest.
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It also said that at no point in time did the NDC parliamentary candidate for the constituency, Mr Bede Ziedeng, run after the President’s convoy screaming “Stop the car, Please stop him.”
According to the NDC team, nothing of the sort ever happened, and that the stories were cooked to embellish the empty propaganda of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that had been hit by a tsunami of internal wrangling, coupled with their inability to put up any convincing message to win the trust of the Ghanaian voter.
This was contained in a press statement which sought to throw light on the President’s visit to the region during his “Accounting to the People” tour.
The team also explained that there was no scheduled programme to address a durbar of chiefs at Lawra, neither was there any programme to pay a courtesy call on the Lawra-Naa, Puowelle Karbo III, nor even address a durbar of chiefs.
It went further to explain that there could not have been any boycott by chiefs as claimed by a section of the media.
It, therefore, described the media reports as a figment of someone’s imagination and added that the paramount chief of Lawra was not in town and, therefore, the courtesy call could not have been part of the President’s programme.
Events of the day
Throwing light on the events of the day in question, the team said the President’s itinerary did not provide for any official activity in Lawra.
It added that the President was, however, scheduled to have lunch at Lawra before proceeding to Nandom to address a durbar of chiefs and to inspect the ongoing construction of the new administration block of the Nandom District Assembly.
According to the team, the President was to inspect the Nandom-Lawra road, which is being tarred. The inspection was to be done within the Nadowli portion of the road. Somehow, the decision was taken that the inspection should be done at the Lawra end of the road, about 1 kilometre into the town.
The President, however, conducted the inspection on the outskirts of Lawra without any fan-fare and the pupils of a nearby school, on seeing the President’s convoy, poured out onto the inspection site to catch a glimpse of the first gentleman of the land, which is very normal of children in any part of Ghana, particularly so for many of them who were seeing him physically for the first time.
It said Mr Ziedeng had discussed with the Regional Minister, Alhaji Hamidu Sulemana, the need for the constituency to take advantage of the President’s presence to address party faithful and the public in Lawra who had gathered at a nearby durbar ground very close to the official route used by the presidential convoy.
It emphasized that the President’s stopover in Lawra to address the crowd was in response to a clamour from a huge enthusiastic crowd that had gathered to show their love and support to the President and that upon seeing the crowd, the President stopped and signalled Mr Ziedeng to move to his vehicle. After talking to Mr Ziedeng, the President decided to go and address the crowd.