ADVERTISEMENT

Police brutality against protesters 'shameful' - Akufo-Addo

“This peaceful demonstration was turned by the police into a bloody affair – water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets. It is a great shame on our country, and it is a tragedy for Ghana.”

Police brutality against protesters 'shameful' - Akufo-Addo

Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has condemned last Wednesday’s police brutal action on the ’Let My Vote Count' demonstrators and described it as shameful.

A demonstration by members and supporters of pressure groups, 'Let My Vote Count Alliance', 'Movement for Better Ghana', to drum home the need for a new voters register turned violent, after many people got injured and some were flogged by the police.

The police claimed the demonstrators violated agreements on the approved routes.

However, speaking at Bolgatanga during a two-day tour of the Upper East Region Thursday, Nana Akufo-Addo said: “This peaceful demonstration was turned by the police into a bloody affair – water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets.  It is a great shame on our country, and it is a tragedy for Ghana,”

ADVERTISEMENT

Nana Akufo-Addo stated Ghanaians, after years of dictatorship, have accepted multi-party democracy and will no longer tolerate acts aimed at cowing the citizenry into submission.  “We are determined to continue down the path of democratic engagement and an open society where its citizens can go about their work peacefully. Brute force by the police against unarmed citizens exercising their constitutional rights, should be a thing of the past,” he stated.He assured all NPP members and sympathisers, and the majority of Ghanaians and stakeholders in Ghana’s electoral process, who are desirous of a new voters’ register ahead of the 2016 election, that, “we want the world to know that no amount of intimidation is going to stop those of us asking for a new register to go about our peaceful advocacy for a new register.” Nana Akufo-Addo further called on President Mahama to establish a commission of enquiry to go into the events of wednesday "into how come the Police behaved the way that they did, and make the appropriate recommendations.”The NPP flagbearer urged Ghanaians to follow the example of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who is asking the voices of all Ghanaians to be heard on the matter of the voters’ register, “so it becomes clear what the people want.”Nana Akufo-Addo, though being of the firm belief that the arguments made by the NPP on the need for a new voters register have proved to be superior and have, indeed, won the day, he stressed that the “reason we are asking for a new register is not because the NPP will gain any advantage.”The NPP, according to Nana Akufo-Addo, was asking for a new voters’ register because “it will strengthen the credibility of the electoral system and therefore make the outcome of any electoral outcome easy for people to accept.

He said a new voters' register will be the best way of consolidating and guaranteeing the peace of our country and the survival of our democracy, not because it will favour the NPP, but because it will favour our democracy.”

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

Unblock notifications in browser settings.
ADVERTISEMENT

Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: eyewitness@pulse.com.gh

ADVERTISEMENT