The Agona West parliamentary candidate of main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Central Region, Mr Paul Ofori Amoah, has been charged with aiding and abetting political party vigilantes in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate the incumbent MP, Mrs Cynthia Morrison, who also happens to the Minister of Gender, Child and Social Protection.
Mr Amoah, according to the charge sheet, recruited four persons to “engage in vigilantism at Agona West constituency and hatched a plan to murder Cynthia Mamle Morrison.”
They four suspects were arrested in a hotel at Agona Swedru following a complaint lodged by the MP and were cautioned by the police, after interrogation, concerning their alleged preparation to commit murder and carrying offensive weapons.
The suspects are Saddick Abubakar, Gordon Kunya, Isaac Addea and Dauda Fatua.
Mr Amoah admitted to issuing two separate cheques for GHS5,000 to the suspects.
Subsequently, six more suspects were picked up by the police over another alleged plot to kill the minister.
They have been identified as John Toko, Emmanuel Mensah, Elvis Kwabena Poku, Kwabena Poku, Wahab Saeed and Kweku Amponsah.
Meanwhile, the NDC in the constituency has said a faction within the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) is rather behind the alleged plot to assassinate the minister.
The NDC’s Constituency Secretary, Mr Emmanuel Korley told Accra100.5FM’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, on Tuesday, 20 October 2020, that the NDC suspects that one of the many factions of the NPP in the constituency, is rather bent on killing the incumbent MP.
“We are calling on the police to give Mrs Morrison extra security because what we are suspecting is that, internally, these people can do so many things.
“I am telling you today that they are running away from their own ghosts.
“Agona West NPP is very divided. As we speak, their chairman, secretary, and about four other executives have been suspended”, Mr Korley said.
He added: “Their own people are angry with them and, so, they are trying to cause trouble to themselves and make it appear as though the NDC is behind it.
“So, we are calling on the police to give Maame Morrison extra police than she is having now because we are suspecting they will do harm to her and bring it out that the NDC is behind it.
“We’ll hold a massive press conference to show their plans”, he said.
Mr Korley dared the MP and the NPP in the constituency, to adduce evidence to their claim that the NDC and its parliamentary candidate, intend assassinating the minister.
“I’m challenging the MP to bring any evidence if she has of the allegation.
“There is not a single evidence anywhere, whether audio or video, whatever; nothing, to show that NDC wants to kill Mrs Morrison.
“I’m rather suspecting NPP internal wrangling as the cause of this thing, so, we plead with the police to protect Maame Morrison’s life because she must live to see the massive defeat coming”, Mr Korley added.
According to him, the four suspects arrested in connection with the alleged assassination plot are personal bodyguards of the NDC’s parliamentary candidate, explaining that the cheques found on them at the hotel were payments for bodyguard works done.
On the same programme, Nana Adjei, the NPP’s Constituency Secretary for Agona West, said the explanation that the suspects are bodyguards of the NDC’s parliamentary candidate was false.
In his view, it is ex-post facto rationalisation.
According to him, Mr Korley went for “coaching” to put out that “lie”.
“These people are not known boys in Agona West. We know Paul Ofori Amoah’s bodyguards and these boys are not his bodyguards”, he told Kwabena Prah Jr, host of the show.