NPP,NDC MUST HOLD JOINT RALLY FOR PEACE (Page 14)

01/11/2008
Story: Mary Mensah
SOME residents of the Konkomba Market in Accra have complained of insecurity, following recurrent clashes between supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the area.
Spokesmen of the residents, who called at the Daily Graphic offices yesterday, said following last week’s violent clashes between the two groups, retaliatory attacks had been a daily occurrence.
They said the police always rushed in to effect the arrest of some troublemakers but released them almost immediately to return to the market and continue with more violence.
According to them, there had not been peace since the clashes and if nothing was done to resolve the impasse it would get out of hand and innocent lives could be lost.
They, therefore, appealed to the leaders of the two political parties to hold a joint rally in the area and educate their supporters about the importance of maintaining peace before, during and after the elections.
The spokesmen, Mohammed Kamil Ahmed and Dr Habib Sulemana, who are members of the Kumbungu Youth Association in the Konkomba Market, also condemned the continued violence and said Ghana was bigger than all political parties.
“We are all one people; why should we kill each other because of politics; we have the right to choose the party we want to belong to but that should not be used to perpetuate violence in the country,” they said.
According to them, there were a number of people from all the regions in the country doing business at the market but it was always a small fraction of people who had been creating tension among the people.
They said these people who were mostly drug users and peddlers always wielded machetes, threatening to slash anybody who dared to challenge them.
Dr Sulemana, a herbal practitioner, said it was always the Dagomba community that suffered whenever these clashes occurred, thus creating the bad impression in the mind of people that they were violent.