The Northern regional chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Daniel Bugri Naabu, has denied media reports suggesting deep cracks and escalated tension in the party, especially between kokombas and Dagombas.
This follows intense lobbying by constituency executives for appointments at the presidency.
Sections of the media, after a fiery party meeting in Tamale on Wednesday at the Mafara Hotel, reported of division in the party on tribal lines, following the ministerial appointments so far.
The reports said some concerned party loyalists were accusing the regional chairman of championing the agenda of kokombas, sparking fury from the majority Dagombas whose kinsmen have no place yet, in the president’s appointments.
A tribal pressure group in the regional capital, Concerned Youth of Dagbon, nearly vandalized party properties after a Nanumba and a Kokomba tribesmen were named cabinet minister and regional minister respectively.
Its spokesman, Yussif Danjuma, told Starr News the appointments were discriminatory and a way of arming other tribes against Dagombas in a region rugged by tribal violence.
However, at a news conference Thursday at his residence where party business is now carried out after he shut down the regional secretariat, the chairman ripped into the media in outrage saying pressmen lacked “integrity” and are avarice driven.
“Some of you pressmen I doubt whether you are really pressmen; you don’t have integrity. What didn’t come in the meeting hall would come in the air. This morning when I heard the news item I was shocked, [was] this issue raised there? Then where did they raised this issue? It means that the pressmen, some of you are cheap, you work for your stomach,” he averred.
“…The guy claim he is an NPP man and yet he is sabotaging the NPP. I’m saying it, I don’t mince words. He should stop what he is doing. The NPP youth can rebel against him if he doesn’t take time. The youth were here this morning agitating and I told them to be patient. The guy should stop. I will take the matter up in Accra,” he added.
The reporter has declined comment.
However, there have been ruthless lobbying among party members in the region for DCE positions. The development has caused deep divisions forcing many youth groups to issue warnings of violent protests if their choices are not chosen.
