It Is Unfair To Brand Us As NPP � Sodom And Gomorrah Residents

Some leaders of the residents of Old Fadama have expressed anger at the Member of Parliament for Odododiodio, Nii Lante Vanderpuye for suggesting that their protest against an ongoing demolition exercise in the area was masterminded by the opposition New Patriotic Party.

 According to them, many of the affected individuals were active members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and that they feel offended by attempts to associate them with the NPP and to conclude that their actions were politically motivated.

One of them, Faidal Rahman who spoke to Accra based radio station; Starr FM on Tuesday said most of them have sacrificed a lot for the NDC.

He said it was annoying and irritating to hear the MP accuse them of being NPP members.

“Some of us spent our time working for the NDC in 2012 and he [Vanderpuye] knows. It is unfair that today we are being branded NPP because we are expressing concerns over this demolition. I and others served as poling agents for Nii Lante Vanderpuye and we dealt with him personally,” Rahman told Starr FM.

The MP for Odododiodio who doubles as Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development on Monday laid the charges on Asempa FM that his namesake and rival, Nii Lantey Bannerman distributed placards bearing anti-government messages and paraphernalia of the opposition NPP to the angry residents whose homes and shops were pulled down on grounds they occupied the place illegally.

Vanderpuye had said Bannerman was involved in an attempt to score political points and that he was very ashamed of the party's behaviour. He said it was clear his likely opponent was not politically matured hence his resort to politicise an issue that needed non-partisan collaboration to cure.

Bannerman has denied the accusations and said he was surprised anyone could cite him to be involved in any action at the place because he had not even set foot there, given how volatile the situation was.

Claims that we're NPP is annoying – Sodom and Gomorrah residents

Speaking on Starr FM Faidal Rahman said: “That is annoying when I heard it, it came from not less a person but our own MP [Nii Lante Vanderpuye] because he knows us. He knows the work we did for him.”

“Nii Lante Vanderpuye knew the work I personally did as a polling agent for him. I was the leader of all the polling agents in the community and I had to follow the results everywhere up to the Electoral Commission and had to send a copy to his office, hand it over and signed before I could go home. For that matter, he, associating me now with NPP is annoying.”

“The fact is that, if you look at the posters the guys were holding, they were 2008 posters of NPP because in 2008 NPP had a party office in the community where they stocked these things, and that office was also demolished just on Sunday and when it was demolished, even as we are speak now when you send a reporter there they [NPP 2008 posters] are still lying down on the street there.