The National Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has asserted that, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and President Akufo Addo believe in winning an election through violence.
In an interview, he blamed President Akufo Addo for the death of the six persons reported during the 2020 electoral process. He stated that, “the reason why we have witnessed the killing of innocent Ghanaians most of whom are supporters of the National Democratic Congress is because we have a president and an incumbent political party who believe that election is about cutting heads and not counting heads.
“We have a president and an incumbent political party who believe that, the way to win an election is not by selling your message to the electorates but by using brute force and gun violence.”
He explained that, since these shootings are alleged to have been done by security personnel deployed under President Akufo Addo’s administration, the President is to be blamed for the bloodshed during the just-ended elections.
Sammy Gyamfi stated that “there is ample evidence to show that these killings were done by officers of our security agencies. Men clothed in Military uniforms and National Security apparels who shot into crowds who were not holding any weapons, who were not destroying public property or firing at anybody but shot at them, killing people in the process.
“Now because the President is the Commander in Chief of the Ghana Arm Forces, and these people were weaponized and incorporated into our security agencies under his tenure, he takes the ultimate responsibility for that.”
He further noted that, “this is the first time that we are having the National Security Council maintain an Armed Force that they deploy for election purposes.
“We were all in this country when the Short Commission in their recommendations stated that, that was an illegality and violated the 1992 constitution. The President rejected that recommendation and refused to disband that Arm Force at the National Security Council; the National Security Council he chairs’. They deployed them for the purposes of this year’s elections. These are the people who have killed innocent Ghanaians,” Sammy Gyamfi added.
Reacting to Sammy Gyamfi’s comments on the same platform, the Member of Parliament for Effutu constituency on the ticket of the NPP, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin said, violence during elections are near inevitable even though efforts are made to prevent them, but “to attack the President and to say that it is the ruling government that wants to use brute force to achieve an aim is most unfortunate and inaccurate, and I don’t expect this to be coming from the National Communications Officer of the NDC.”
He further mentioned that the NDC have not been patriotic in their actions and inactions before, during, and after the 2020 general elections.
“Your party is being unreasonably greedy with the way you are approaching matters before and after the election. Before the elections, you made it loudly clear that you were not going to accept the results and you started inciting your people. At Techiman South, when the results were going to be declared, your PC (parliamentary candidate) physically prevented the returning officer. Is that the law? Is that what you’ve trained them to do?”
He later registered his condolence to the families of the deceased victims and asked the leadership of the NDC to “demonstrate some political maturity” to avoid raising the tempers of their members which could end badly.
