The NPP MP for Ablekuma West,
Ursula Owusu Ekuful, has suggested her party’s success in 2020 general
elections is a fait accompli.
According to her, the opposition
National Democratic Congress (NDC) “can go and drink all the water in the sea
they won’t win this election. They won’t,” she said in an interview on an
Accra-based TV station.
Explaining the rationale behind
her optimism, Ursula said “I am confident because of the work we have done”.
“However, in the most unlikely
event that they (NDC) win, it is not going to happen, but that would have been
the choice of the electorates. Life will go on. It will not be the end of the
world.”
Ursula, who is also Minister of
Communication said her opponent had no chance in her constituency.
This she said was due to the
development she had introduced in her jurisdiction.
“Our roads, we’ve got a new
municipality, we’ve got two new police stations, we’re building the maternity
wing for the Dansoman Polyclinic, we’re getting a municipal hospital, …you name
it. I’ve done a hello lot of work in the constituency,” she said while listing
some of the projects she had undertaken in her area.
Election-related violence
It would be recalled that in October 2020, some
members of the governing NPP and NDC clashed in the Odododiodoo constituency
when the latter was embarking on a health walk.
The incident left some
supporters with injuries.
The Sunday morning attack
occurred on the Atta Mills Highway, at a junction called ‘One way’.
Videos of the melee which emerged on social media showed supporters
in attires of both parties and other party paraphernalia throwing stones,
bottles, and other items at each other on the street.
Reacting to the violence which
broke out in Odododiodoo, Madam Ursula condemned the act while calling for calm
among all supporters of the various political parties.
“All this political violence we
unleash on ourselves is completely unnecessary. Elections are just contests of
ideas.”
Odododiodoo constituency is
notorious for election-related violence.
In 2012, Madam Ursula Owusu
Ekuful was allegedly assaulted in that constituency by a gang suspected to be
members of the opposition NDC.
She accused the NDC Nii Lante
Vanderpuye who was then the NDC Parliamentary Candidate of masterminding the
attack on her.
Ursula said
she was touring the constituency to urge NPP supporters in the area to register
when she was attacked by some heavily built men she claimed were followers of
Nii Lante Vanderpuye.
Nii Lante admitted he sent thugs to assault me
Almost eight
years after Ursula was allegedly assaulted at the Odododiodioo constituency,
she revealed that the MP for the area admitted he sent the thugs to assault her
when she visited his area.
“He [Nii Lante
Vanderpuye], hired thugs to assault me in that constituency. I know [because]
he has admitted that.”
“He sent emissaries to come and apologize to me when we got
back to parliament. For three years, he sent people after me to admit that what
he did was wrong and to apologize to me. I get emotional and I’ve tried to move
beyond that because what I told him was that he was my mate in Legon.
“If I had died, he would have
shown up at my funeral shedding crocodile tears knowing that he was responsible
for my death,” Ursula Owusu Ekuful said in an interview with TV3.
Meanwhile, theghanareport has placed four calls and a message to
the MP for Odododiodioo, Nii Lante Vanderpuye his response, but have gone
unanswered.
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