The Member of Parliament (MP) for Offinso South, Abdallah Bandah is yet to come to terms with what compelled some delegates in the constituency to invoke curses on him over claims that there are deliberate attempts to make him run unopposed in the upcoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primaries.
The aggrieved delegates on Friday marched to the Offin river to perform a ritual to resist any attempt by party executives to impose the incumbent MP on them.
According to them, they want the leadership of the party to allow two disqualified aspirants to contest Mr. Bandah in order to ensure peace in the constituency.
But the Offinso South legislator is shocked at the action of the supporters describing it as illogical and unwarranted.
He believes, the delegates have just been misled by their own erroneous perception of him running unopposed.
“That is the creation they have created, I do not know if anyone has communicated to them the decision of me going unopposed to them. Nobody has communicated to me that I am going unopposed so I don’t know where they got that story from. For me, it is difficult to know their minds constructions from the acts they did. What I will say is, that action was taken purposely to give a very misleading and false impression about me over claims that the party is disunited in the constituency and also to project my other two contestants as that solidly behind it. That is what I read into what they did otherwise if you have heard something or know that a decision has been taken, they know the party structures for what to be done. But to go to the river with ram, drinks, and eggs to invoke curses on party officials, it is very difficult to fathom what they did”, he said on Point Blank on Eyewitness News.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bandah says he remains unshaken by the rituals and the curses.
He indicated that never has he committed any wrongdoing to incur the wrath of the supporters stressing his vindication and refuge in his Islamic beliefs.
“I am a staunch Muslim. And as Muslims, we believe in the oneness and supremacy of God. I know that in the spiritual realm, you need to commit wrongdoing before you can bear the consequences of a curse. So I am not afraid because I have done no wrong to warrant any fear in me but I leave everything to the power and decision to the Almighty Allah.”
The NPP is scheduled to conduct its parliamentary primaries on June 20, 2020.
The election was supposed to have come off on April 25, 2020, but was postponed indefinitely due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country and the related restrictive measures announced by the President.
At a Steering Committee meeting held on Monday [June 1, 2020], the party agreed to hold the election in electoral areas rather than at the constituency level in order to ensure social distancing.
NPP was to use the primaries to elect parliamentary candidates in constituencies where it has sitting Members of Parliament, ahead of the 2020 general elections.