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General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, says the attempt by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to use the misunderstanding which took place during the opposition party's meeting at Suame in the Ashanti Region to even up for the Ayawaso by-election violence will not wash.

He asserts that nothing gory or vicious occured, but that the gunshots fired were rather aimed at the tyres of a car, and not directed at any person.

According to The Chronicle Newspaper, suspended NDC Constituency Chairman for Suame in the Kumasi Metropolis, Mr. Saeed Omar Abdela Shaba, escaped death by a hair’s breadth on Monday, this week, when three members of the dreadful Hawks, a vigilante group affiliated to his party, attacked him.

The Chronicle further reported that Mr Saeed claimed the three, who are also constituency executives, approached him whilst he was driving in town and ordered him, (Saeed) to hand over the party vehicle in his possession to them.

According to him, he refused to obey the order, and sensing danger that they would attack him, decided to report their conduct.

Saeed further told The Chronicle that just as he started his journey to the police the station, the Hawks members opened fire and shot the tyres of the vehicle forcing him to stop. They then seized the vehicle at gunpoint and drove it away.

A couple of weeks ago, former President John Dramani Mahama made his infamous boot-for-boot statement to incite party supporters against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) ahead of the 2020 elections, when he said the NDC will not joke in 2020.

And it appears his own party men who are in a race with him have begun the fire within their own ranks, political watchers say.

Reports indicates that over the weekend, gunshots were fired at a meeting between NDC presidential hopeful Sylvester Mensah and party delegates at Suame in the Ashanti Region.

The shooting incident, according to sources, was triggered by some confusion that surrounded the bussing of delegates to the venue Mr. Mensah was set to meet them, while others are of the opinion that the gunmen, who has not been arrested, belongs to other candidates in the presidential race and intended to create fear among the delegates.

The NDC's main opponents have made political capital out of the two shooting incidents.

Reacting to these two accounts on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Asiedu Nketia pooh-poohed attempts at equalization by their political opponents.

“Someone is saying that the supposed shooting and butchering in Kumasi and the Ayawaso West Wuogon violence are the same but it is not true. I think the incidence which took place at Ayawaso recently which we are still discussing is what the NPP is looking for an equalization opportunity. But what happened in Ayawaso was not about internal bickering," he stated.

The NDC Chief Scribe further sought to distinguish the two incidents.

"a suspended Suame Constituency Chairman decided to attend the meeting which was organized by Sylvester Mensah, and the Constituency Youth Organizer, upon noticing his presence went with his men to eventually retrieve the official car...

“. . I think they beat him up and pull him out of the car and it was at that moment that we were told some people came and fired shots into the tyres but all the same, they took the away . . . the Chairman who claimed he was beaten, went to report the case to the police,” he narrated.

On about the identity of the gunmen, Asiedu Nketia said; “we don’t know who they are as we speak now. It can be that those who did not want the car to be taken away shot into the tyres or those who were attempting to retrieve the car shot at the tyres. Nobody was directly shot at, and neither has anybody been butchered...so if someone comes out to say that the chairman has been shot and hospitalized, I don’t know where this news is coming from.”