There is heavy security in Karaga in the Northern Region following bloody clashes between supporters of the two biggest political parties, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Tuesday, 10 November 2020.

The brutal clashes left six persons with deep machete wounds.

They have all been receiving treatment at the hospital.

One of the victims is in critical condition.

The clashes happened after some motor-riding youth belonging to the NDC stormed a pavilion where some NPP supporters were fraternising.

A confrontation ensued among them, which led to some of the supporters inflicting machete wounds on their political opponents.

Speaking to the media, ASP Thomas Tulasi of the Karaga Police Command said the police are treating the incident as a criminal matter.

“What happened yesterday was unfortunate but we, as police or security agency, are not taking it as a political issue, we are taking it a criminal issue”, he said.

“So, I assure you that those perpetrators, we are going to bring them to book”, he said, stressing: “We are not going to treat it as a political issue; it is criminal”.

“So, you people should be patient, take heart; do not go and also re-attack. We are going to treat it as a criminal issue. We have all the names and, at the appropriate time, all those people will be picked”, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr Mohammed Amin Anta, who is the NPP’s parliamentary candidate for Karaga, is accusing the incumbent MP, who is seeking re-election on the ticket of the NDC, Mr Alhassan Sulemana Dandawa, for instigating the attack on supporters of the NPP.

“He [the incumbent] sent the group there to cause that mayhem and now he has run to the media. I took the media to the Karaga Hospital to see the wounded people there. We all have to contribute to bringing lasting peace in the area [but] because the man is losing his seat, all that is left for him is to cause violence in the area in order to deter people from coming out to vote. We will not allow that and I am calling on the security agencies to act expeditiously. The man must be arrested as well as his supporters”, Dr Amin Anta demanded.

However, Mr Dandawa’s Campaign Coordinator, Mr Zakaria Salifu, told Kofi Oppong Asamoah on Class91.3FM’s mid-day news 12Live on Wednesday, 11 November 2020 that: “This is a palpable falsehood peddled by the parliamentary candidate of the NPP”.

He gave his version of what transpired thus: “We were having a rally at Sung and then when our supporters were coming in with their motorbikes – the party pavilion is just close to the road, so, as they were riding the motorbikes – the supporters of the NPP were complaining that the [bikes] were [producing] too much dust and, so, they stopped one of our riders and warned him that nobody should pass there again with their motorbikes. But that cannot happen because the road is meant for everybody to use and on that particular day, you [NPP] were not having a programme. We [NDC] were having a programme in that particular area and for that matter, there was no business with you guys sitting down there trying to prevent our riders from entering the place.

“So, we were having a rally there; they were not having anything. They attacked our supporters first and you know, as they attacked our supporters, definitely, people were surprised at what was happening, so, they tried to find out and they started beating them. We were also many, so, we had to defend ourselves. So, we did that in defence of ourselves”.