The Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party has justified the takeover of the Kintampo Waterfall by the Invisible Forces, a vigilante group affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party.
Nana Obiri Boahene is suggesting the takeover is nothing more than sweet revenge for what happened to him in 2009.
According to him, his company managed the Kintampo Waterfall in 2008 until hoodlums in the NDC forcibly took over the facility in 2009 when the party won elections.
“Those who want to probe further should find out what happened in 2009… NDC activists, NDC hoodlums, NDC sympathisers invaded the place, chased my workers out, beat them up, vandalised the place, broke into offices and they used the police. No police man was able to touch them,” he said.
The management of the Kintampo Waterfall has become a subject of debate after 19 people lost their lives under bizarre circumstances on Sunday.
A tree was said to have crashed the revelers, mostly students, who had gone to the Waterfall for an excursion.
Questions have been raised about the competence and the professionalism of the managers of the facility during the incident.
It emerged that the Invisible Forces, a militia group within the NPP had added the Waterfall to the list of assets it took over immediately the NPP won power in 2016.
Without any training and competence in managing a tourist facility critics have blamed the militia group for last Sunday’s national disaster.
But Obiri Boahene has mounted a spirited defence for the militia group even though he claims the party did not sanction the takeover.
“We don’t know anything about it. The party is not involved. The party has never directed, instigated, encouraged, facilitated any individual to takeover,” he said.
“Personally, speaking for myself, and what happened to me in 2009, I don’t think there is anything wrong if for one reason or another some NPP sympathisers have taken over in a tit-for-tat affair,” he added.
He argued those questioning the competence and professionalism of the Invisible Forces to manage the facility should have done same when the NDC hoodlums took over in 2009.
The Waterfall has however been shut pending further investigations into the circumstances surrounding the disaster.
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