At least five people sustained gunshot wounds and have been rushed to the hospital when some unknown gunmen invaded the Bawleshie residence of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Mr Kwasi Delali Berempong in the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election on Thursday morning.
Some of the victims are said to have sustained injuries at the neck, arm and back.
The gunmen, believed to be members of Invisible Forces, a political vigilante group, shot sporadically, leaving residents to run for their lives.
The masked gunmen allegedly appeared in military uniform and started shooting at the scores of people who had gathered at Mr Brempong’s residence.
Graphic Online reporters at the scene saw two bullet shells and blood stains outside the residence where some irate persons were being calmed by the Police.
A stitch in time
According to Mr Ofosu Ampofo, the party’s decision to pull out of the election is “a stitch in time [because] we believe that this by-election should not take a single life and a single drop of blood.”
According to Mr Ofosu Ampofo, the party picked up intelligence on Wednesday that some group of persons had planned to stage an attack at the strongholds of the NDC in the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency.
“We picked intelligence yesterday that there were attempts to move some people to cause confusion and mayhem in places supposed to be the NDC stronghold in order to scare people to vote. We picked the intel but we thought we are deploying our people there and we believe that the security will be there to protect them but lo and behold the intel we picked has worked,” he claimed.
Loss of confidence
He said the party had lost confidence in the security agencies to protect lives and properties.
He alleged that the gunmen were masked security men driving in security vehicles.
“We haven’t seen by-election where masked security men have been deployed. The police are always there to provide security for everybody but this time we have no security people. We have people in national security t-shirt deployed at every polling station and the level of intimidation two hours into the election, we cannot guarantee what will happen to our agents when counting and darkness sets in.”
Injured persons
According to Mr Ampofo, about eight persons were injured in the shooting incident and were sent to the Legon Hospital for medical attention.
“I visited them at the Legon hospital and according to the doctors, two of them are in critical condition and are being transferred to 37 or the police hospital,” he said.
