John Dramani Mahama, the presidential candidate of the opposition National
Democratic Congress (NDC) has condemned President Akufo Addo for the
“discriminatory” use of military personnel to disenfranchise Ewes and other non-Akan
in the ongoing voters’ registration exercise.
There are video evidence floating all over social media on how security agencies and
the Electoral Commission (EC) are discriminating and preventing people with none-
Akan-sounding names from registering in the new voters’ register.
Whatsup News has seen videos of Northerners and Ewes across the country
complaining bitterly that whenever they mentioned their names at registration centres, they are immediately flagged as non-Ghanaian, despite them having official Ghanaians ID cards.
The NDC flagbearer is convinced that the confusion at registration centres is a result
of an abuse of Executive power by President Akufo Addo.
“As Commander-in-Chief, I will not use our military in such a partisan manner to
terrorise our own people, and in matters that are purely civil and dwell in the very
heart of our constitutional democracy,” ex-President Mahama warned on his
Facebook post on Saturday, August 1, 2020.
“The road President Akufo-Addo is taking our beautiful country through, using the
military and party thugs to stop people from exercising their right to register and vote
in the upcoming December elections, is dangerous and unacceptable.”
Mahama’s statement comes in the heels of military personnel being used as
immigration inspection officers. Soldiers have been deployed to registration centres
and border towns to inspect the verify the nationality of Ghanaians by sight.
President Akufo-Addo, in an address to the nation on Monday, June 29,
2020, justified the deployment of military personnel along the country’s borders saying
it was in the best interest of the country.
“The longstanding deployment of security personnel, especially the military, along
our borders is another dimension of this process of guaranteeing the peace of the
nation,” he said.