Ghana: Raid On NPP Offices – Narrations of a Rented Boy Who Was Paid GH₵50

The young men who were hired as a back-up group in the raiding of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) headquarters on Monday received GH₵50 each from the organisers. Nana Yaw, one of the young men who spoke about their experience to Oman Fm yesterday, said “we were each given GH₵50 to go for a party at
the NPP headquarters.” Strangely, organisers of the attack are yet to be located, apart from media speculations pointing in the direction of the suspended National Chairman of the party, Paul Afoko. Joy Fm quoted police sources as saying the ringleader of the 12 persons arrested for ransacking the NPP offices confessed that Paul Afoko masterminded the dawn raid.

Four party supporters have also written and submitted a statement to the Police revealing that they were called and conveyed from Odorkor to the headquarters at Asylum Down under the impression that they were attending a party, only for the mission to be changed on reaching the location.

Narrating how he came to be recruited alongside others numbering about 100, Nana Yaw said “we were listening to music at a drinking spot at Odorkor when a certain man called Assemblyman came and told us about a party at the NPP headquarters and that he wanted us to come along for a fee.”  He said, “We were conveyed in two buses, leaving Odorkor at 8:00pm. We were delayed before finally making it to the NPP headquarters. At Circle, we stopped at the filling station where the man who had taken command of the mission, a certain Tommy, bought bread for us and Rush Energy Drink.

A number of activities took place as we waited in the bus, all of which consumed a lot of time. “We finally made it to the NPP headquarters between 11:00pm and 1:00am,” he said, adding that “before getting there, we stopped at a point and Tommy got down to talk to somebody in a car which was in the lead.” Questions about who was in the car was neither tolerated nor any efforts at going to see who the person was, Nana Yaw said. One of the men was even slapped by Tommy for being too inquisitive, he added. “We were given red T-shirts with the NPP logo embossed on them and this, each of us was ordered to wear, which we all complied with,” he said.

Eventually, he said, they reached the NPP headquarters where according to him, “we spotted some young persons dressed in similar NPP-branded T-shirts. We were asked to enter the building. Upon entering the place, we were surprised that the venue of a party as we were told was bereft of sitting places. There were also no party dignitaries at the place.”  Nana Yaw said, “We saw soldiers in uniform and some weapons which had been emptied from a sack alongside some machetes, a spectacle which scared us. Then came an order, ‘Odorkor 20’ out. Some us managed to get out but those who were unable to make it were assaulted and suffered knife cuts by those already inside. Meanwhile the men in military uniform had left.”

In a related issue, the Ghana Armed Forces has denied that its men were involved in the sadistic operation at the main opposition party headquarters. Spokesperson for the Armed Forces, Lt Col Aggrey Quarshie said none of his men was involved in the invasion at the NPP head office. “The Armed Forces has not officially sanctioned anybody to do anything at the NPP headquarters and we are waiting for the police to come out with its findings then we can take it from there,” Lt Col Quarshie said. Those who managed to run out of the building, Nana Yaw said, “were chased by men on motorbike but I and others managed to escape.”

Those who suffered knife cuts and other injuries were taken to the Akawe hospital for treatment. The raid on the NPP headquarters last Monday made the headlines, leaving the country grappling with the question about how military uniforms came to be donned by unauthorised persons who undertook an illegal operation. The issue became even murkier after the Police arrested the red-shirted young men, some of whom like Nana Yaw were lured in the name of a party taking place at the NPP headquarters. It was intriguing also that those who mounted the operation were selective in the offices they targeted at the party headquarters.

As usual with such conundrums, fingers are being pointed at possible leads. As the wait for the outcome of the police investigations continues, Ghanaians, especially members of the NPP, would continue to make conjectures.

Meanwhile, a founding member of the NPP, Dr Kwame Amoako Tuffuor, has urged security personnel at the party’s headquarters to deal ruthlessly with anyone who attempts to enter the offices with the intention of stealing or destroying party property. He said the recent raid at the party’s headquarters shows that the NPP in particular and Ghanaians in general were not safe; and that the NPP would not allow a repeat of the Monday dawn incident. “Why should a party’s office be ransacked without doing nothing about it (sic)? Those people who stormed the party office have no business there and so I urge all the security to immediately kill anybody they find as intruders whose mission is to steal and destroy properties. They are no different from armed robbers and so they need to be killed,” he declared.

Meanwhile, on our front page yesterday, we wrongly captioned a picture regarding the raid on the NPP headquarters as ‘leader of the gang’ which descended upon the party offices on Monday night. The man in handcuffs was rather one of the security men guarding the party office at the time of the raid and who is currently being held in police custody. DAILY GUIDE learnt that he is being prepared for court for an unknown crime, especially since he was one of those that alerted the Nima Police about the attack. Strangely, some of the people who were arrested by the police for invading the party offices had been let off the hook for no apparent reason.