The Senior Programmes Officer at the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Leonard Tettey, has called for inclusive participation from stakeholders in its sensitization programme in the Banda constituency in the Bono Region.
Speaking at a sensitization programme, Mr. Tettey appealed to the dominant parliamentary candidates in the constituency to as a matter of urgency endeavor to help mitigate any potential eruption within the Banda constituency.
“We are still concerned about issues in Banda. There are still underlying issues that we think as a Commission needs to be addressed seriously. We are therefore calling on all stakeholders to as a matter of urgency bring [their] attention to Banda. This seems to be a very critical area and as a Commission, we are very worried about it.
“We are ready to share the various issues we picked up with anyone who is interested so that we make sure Banda does not erupt. From the indications we are having, we are not satisfied with the issues here at Banda.”
On their part, the two parliamentary candidates contesting expressed their commitment and support to ensure violence-free elections in the constituency.
According the incumbent Member of Parliament for Banda, Ahmed Ibrahim, he intimated that, he will indeed support the initiative of the Small Arms Commission come the December election.
“I want to use this opportunity to pledge my support to the National Peace Council and the Small Arms Commission that whatever the outcome of the December 7 elections, I will stand by it. And I know that just as we have been doing, we in the NDC from the presidency to myself as the PC, we will go by the declaration of the EC.”
The NPP parliamentary candidate Joe Dankwa, proffered to play by the books of the electoral commission, having learned the unfortunate incident from the voter registration exercise.
“From our end, we have decided to go by the rules of the game before, during and after the elections. We have learnt some lessons from what happened during the registration, it was unfortunate. The name of the District was all over, so we decided from our end to resolve issues and make sure that what happened during the registration would not happen again.”
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The Banda constituency in the Bono Region has been in the news for the bad reasons– electoral violence.
During the Electoral Commission’s Voters’ registration exercise, the Constituency experienced violence which led to the death of one person and many sustaining injuries.
The community has therefore been listed among the seven hotspots in the Bono Region by the Ghana Police Service.
