The beleaguered Deputy Minister of Women and Children�s Affairs, Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, has dragged the Minister of Communications Haruna Iddrisu and Presidential Spokesperson John Jinapor into the shameful fracas that occurred in Tamale last Sunday, prior to President John Mahama�s visit to the area.
Hajia Boya, now nicknamed �De La Hoya� and �No. 10� for her alleged quarrelsome behavior and garnering only 10 votes in the constituency primaries, allegedly attacked 54-year-old Rahinatu Zakaria alias Mma Kande, a banku seller in Tamale, on Sunday afternoon.
The victim is currently on admission at the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Hospital in Tamale, nursing various degrees of injury, following the severe beatings she allegedly received from the minister and her goons.
A visit to Mma Kande at the hospital by DAILY GUIDE saw her with one eye virtually shut and bruises on her face and neck.
Abubakri Sadik, son of the victim, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, disclosed that before her appointment as Deputy Minister, Mma Kande was a close pal of Boya.
But the minister abandoned them only to resurface three years later, soliciting their mandate after the Sagnarigu constituency was created, to be made the party�s parliamentary candidate.
Kande and her allies, in sharp contrast to the demands of the deputy minister, voted for another female candidate, culminating in her painful defeat last week.
Black-Eye
The Deputy Women and Children�s Affairs minister, according to the victim, last Friday, in the company of her police bodyguard, stormed Mma Kande�s food joint, and allegedly rained several abusive words on her and left upon persuasion from the guard.
This did not go down well with the food vendor, but she was advised by her peers to exercise some restraint and allow peace to prevail.
The minister was said to have repeated the action on Sunday and left for a salon afterwards.
Angry Mma Kande trailed her to the hairdressing salon for a verbal showdown, but Boya�s personal aide shoved her away and started beating her up despite pleas from onlookers to spare Kande who at this point was said to be bleeding.
The incident immediately attracted other residents who would have lynched the minister, but for the timely intervention of the Metropolitan Police Commander and the Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, who calmed down the tensed party crowd.
In spite of this intervention, the residents were bent on unleashing their anger on the deputy minister, whom they accused of being arrogant and quarrelsome, prompting more armed men to be deployed to Nyohani.
She was later saved from the hostile crowd and taken to the police station where she lodged an official complaint moments after the victim was attended to by the police and issued with a medical form.
Accusations
The Deputy Minister however accused the Communications Minister of being the brain behind her predicament, alleging that Haruna Iddrisu was also working clandestinely to scuttle Mahama�s presidency, because Haruna Iddrisu was harbouring presidential ambitions.
�It is Haruna Iddrisu who mobilized them to come and attack me and I don�t know for what. Haruna has been doing that every time he organizes people to beat people when he doesn�t agree with you on anything,� she told Citi FM.
She further alleged that �he wants to have control over so many constituencies and I am not hurt that I lost the primaries, but it is paining him. He mobilized the people to come and attack me and I know all of them, they are his boys and he was there himself. He was there.
He came with the boys�.
�The woman just came to the salon, held my dress and tore it and I didn�t have a security man with me. But one of the boys I was moving with held the woman and pushed her so she hit her face on the ground,� Boya said.
Yesterday, Hajia Boya also told Accra based Peace FM that Haruna masterminded the attack on her.
Hajia Boya further accused John Jinapor of the Office of the President as well as Baffoe Bonnie, Advisor to President Mahama, of attacking and slapping her; an incident she was said to have reported to the Chief of Staff, although no action had since been taken on the matter.
She said Jinapor slapped her at the Kotoka International Airport in May upon their arrival from Tamale for an official function, where she had called the two presidential aides �useless�.
But Mr. Jinapor, when contacted, denied the allegations through a text message saying, �My response is simple. I have never fought with any man, how much more beat a woman. If she has her problems, I would not be used by her as a scapegoat.�
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