A Former Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Kwaku Gyan has called on the Electoral Commission to put measures in place to safeguard the fundamental human rights of victims affected by the Akosombo dam spillage flood
In a public lecture organized by the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, on the topic Protecting Our Democracy; the Role of the Judiciary’, Justice Kwaku Gyan , a former judge of the Appellate Court of Ghana expressed grave vexation about the possible effect of the recent Akosombo and Kpong dams’ spillage on the 2024 general elections.
He explained that the humanitarian crisis occasioned by the disaster has resulted in the damages of some essential items of the affected residents.
According to the former judge of the Appellate Court, there are possibilities of some identification documents such as the Ghana Card and the Voter ID, which are required to exercise one’s voting right been lost amidst the dam spillage.
“Many human settlements in the catchment areas have completely been wiped off the map. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians escaping the rampaging floods left behind practically all their human possessions. Relevant to the forthcoming 2024 elections are the two most critical items and possessions of the people fleeing from the flood waters. They are the Almighty Ghana Card and the Voter ID card.
“Thus, apart from the inextensible loss of their creature comforts, the victims of this deluge in the Volta region in particular as well as those in other parts of the country manifestly risk the cruel denial of their constitutional right to vote in the 2024 elections because of the loss or destruction through the Volta River floods of their national ID and Voter ID cards and unless something urgent and drastic done to avert this eventuality”.
Justice Kwaku Gyan
Justice Gyan Chastise Government For Undermining Impact Of Flood
Moreover, Justice Kwaku Gyan chastised the government and other key institutions of undermining the negative impact of the Akosombo and Kpong dams’ induced flood which has since disrupted normal activities in the affected communities.
He therefore called on the government and all stakeholders including the Electoral Commission, and the National Identification Authority to take measures that will ensure that residents in the Volta region affected by the Akosombo Dam spillage can exercise their voting rights both in the district-level elections and the 2024 general elections as it is their constitutional right.
“We all know that the universal adult suffrage and hence the franchise to vote by those qualified to vote is a constitutional imperative. Every reasonable and necessary step and action ought to be devised to avoid and prevent any mass disenfranchisement of the people of the Volta Region as well as those in all other parts of the country affected and afflicted by this man-made disaster”.
Justice Kwaku Gyan
The Volta River Authority started releasing more water on September 15 as a result of the Akosombo and Kpong hydro dams’ rising levels.
Many people who lived in the Lower Volta Basin lost their fields and houses to flooding brought on by the spillage weeks after it began. It is known that the floods have affected nine districts, with the residents now facing a humanitarian crisis.
Tragic stories from the Volta Region’s South, Central, and North Tongu districts, where the destruction knows no bounds, have surfaced. The towns of Battor, Tefle, Mepe, Sogakope, Adidome, and Anlo, which were before thriving, are now completely engulfed by the relentless floods.
According to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) over 26,000 people have been displaced and rendered homeless.
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