A 37-year-old assemblyman for Kwabia in the Kintampo South District of the Bono East Region, Alfred Agandaa, also known as Tutu, has lodged a complaint with the police in Kintampo following a brutal assault allegedly carried out by thugs who, he claims, acted on the instructions of Unas Owusu, the regional chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Tutu is back on admission at the Kintampo Municipal Hospital, where he was previously treated and briefly discharged. Speaking over the phone on Thursday evening, he told Myjoyonline.com that he could hardly bear the pain.
However, Unas Owusu, the regional chairman, denied any knowledge of the incident when contacted by Myjoyonline.com. He attributed the allegations to detractors attempting to tarnish his reputation.
Alfred Agandaa’s body, particularly his back, is covered in bruises and cuts inflicted by the thugs, who, he said, posed as national security operatives.
He claims he was targeted for allegedly denigrating the regional party chairman over the whereabouts of some 200 out of 600 bags of rice said to have been recovered from a warehouse belonging to former MP and New Patriotic Party parliamentary candidate in the 2024 elections, Alexander Gyan.
According to Agandaa, a known NDC activist, he was forcibly bundled into a Daewoo Matiz at the Yakam Hotel in Kintampo by about four men, including the driver, who claimed to be national security opeoperatives.
Lured into a trap His captors had lured him to the hotel by informing him that the party’s regional secretary, Isaac Adaebsa, needed to see him there.
Upon reaching there, he recounted that they forced him into the vehicle drove him out of town towards Jema, enduring severe beatings along the way as they accused him of insulting key personalities in the constituency and the region, including the constituency and regional party chairmen.
He said they handcuffed him and subjected him to a brutal assault in a bush. As the beating continued, he overheard his captors saying they had been instructed to “finish him.” They stopped the car, got out, and marched him along a narrow path into the bush. Eventually, they halted among some mango trees near a stream, forcing him to kneel while still handcuffed, as the assault persisted.
One of his attackers, he alleged, received a phone call, during which he overheard the individual saying, “But chairman, you said we should finish him, and now you are asking us to bring him to the office?”
Agandaa said a passer-by, a man returning from his farm, chanced upon them and asked if he was a thief. The thugs, however, denied this, claiming instead that he was known for insulting elders in the town.
At about 6 p.m., in his weakened state and still in handcuffs, the thugs helped him back into the vehicle and drove him to the regional chairman’s office.