Blow by blow account of Atiwa by-elections

*Commando Abass, the chief executioner
*32 Pick-ups used by NDC in special operation
*Ofosu Ampofo, Baba Jamal, chief vandal enforcers
*NPP road blocks triggered shooting
STORY: RICHMOND KEELSON
Lead commando, commonly referred to as Abass, shot a voter at one of the electoral areas at Abomosu, a suburb of Atiwa. The hapless young man was immediately carried away by NPP sympathizers to a nearby health facility, but his posture and the intermittent groaning suggested that he might not survive Abass’ gruesome gun shot.
At press time yesterday, the poor young man, Today was reliably informed, was in coma after being transferred to the Nkawkaw General hospital.
Abass looks very strong, combative and well-built with a clean hair shave. The contours that make up his biceps easily give him up as a body-builder, otherwise known as machoman in the local Ghanaian parlance.
The gruesome act by the commando chief offers an insight into a state-managed mayhem and terror visited on Atiwa indigenes during last Tuesday’s bye-election at the Atiwa Constituency. The NDC however lost despite that sheer bravado to undo clearly a constituency that NPP’s domineering hold is very much unquestionable.
In the process the high cost of human loses are still being counted by the NPP, which suffered most in the callous bout.
Abass was the leader of the over 400 commandos who were deployed by the National Security Council (NSC) with the support of Eastern Regional Minister, Ofosu Ampofo, and his deputy Baba Jamal, in a special intimidation act, ostensibly to cow supporters of the opposition NPP from voting in the Atiwa bye-election.
Perhaps they were goaded on to withstand the watch-night vigil prior to the Election Day by the “encouraging” words of Ofosu Ampofo and Baba Jamal. Ofosu Ampofo boldly told the hoodlums “nobody should be afraid. One thousand and two hundred police officers (1,200) policemen are backing us. Nobody can arrest any one of you.”
Baba Jamal urged them to “go all out” in their special exercise, just as officials of the National Security. Around 1 a.m., on Tuesday, the day of the bye-election, Ofosu Ampofo and Baba Jamal and the National Security official visited the commandos who were not particularly housed at Dunfa, a suburb of Atiwa, like they were in Koforidua during the bye-election campaign period.
The NSC official used a dark V8 four-wheel drive with registration number – GR1643 X. The commando group and their leadership decided to move to Kwamen on the day of the election but had to shelve the idea because most of the top personnel of the NPP, including Lord Commey and others were also stationed at Kwamen. The NDC then decided to locate at Dunfa and presto the plot-hatch begun.
Some of commandos perched temporarily in homes of some top NDC personnel and other sympathizers of the ruling party, while others just loitered around, chatting and strategizing at their Dunfa base in anticipation of a real show down on Tuesday.
Today established from Atiwa that the National Security provided 32 Pick-ups for the commando operatives to use in the special Atiwa operation. As early as 6 a.m., Tuesday (August 31st, 2010), all the Pick-ups drew fuel from EXCEL FILLING station, opposite the Anyinam Rural Bank.
The operatives were then dispatched in a group of four each and dropped by the Pick-ups at the 68 polling stations that the NDC had targeted. These polling stations were in locked-up hinterlands in the Atiwa area.
But before the commando groups set out, they were offered special bout of drinking treat. The alcoholic lots in the group were given special sachet containing alcohol and other kinds of soft alcoholic beverages for the non-alcoholics in the group. They were also treated to a sumptuous konkonte and rice meal that early morning.
There were no Azorka Boys on sight as major media reports had purported. Such media personnel mistook the commandos to be the notorious Azorka group, whose jurisdiction is limited to Tamale and its environs in the Northern part of the country.
Although the commandos had their own agenda, the road blocks mounted by the NPP, particularly at Apremso served as the catalyst for the commandos to go on a shooting spree resulting in the death of other two NPP supporters.
With media reports on the armed commandos hyped to a dizzy height, the police managed to arrest two commando operatives in the morning of the bye-election, but were immediately released on the orders of the powers-that-be, Today gathered.