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Stephen Ayesu Ntim, National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has issued an apology to Despite Media for the intrusion of 'thugs' during Saturday's episode of United Showbiz on UTV.

Over 20 thugs who identified themselves as NPP sympathizers stormed the UTV studios refusing to let the show go on until A-plus, a regular panelist on the show, apologized to the NPP for ripping a letter addressed to the management of UTV to reform United Showbiz.

This put the programme on hold for over 40 minutes until the Police intervened leading to the arrest of about 16 of them.

Stephen Ntim, speaking on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo' Thursday morning, stated that thuggery is not a part of the NPP and assured that the unfortunate incident would not be repeated.

"This is not how the NPP is…this is not our tradition, so we render an unreserved apology to the management of Despite media, Dr Osei Kwame Despite, and the entire nation".

He added: “You know me, there have been several incidents where I have been provoked but I never reacted and always maintained my cool and this is the sort of quality I want to transcend to party members from the National to polling station levels. I want everyone to have self-control in our political discourse.

Going forward, he said, "You can count on us that this incident will not repeat itself . . . even if there’s anger, there’ll be self-control. Internally, we are putting measures to ensure that this doesn’t happen here (Despite media) or anywhere else again".

"We want the law to take its course and we are ready to assist the police in their investigations,” he added.