President Akufo-Addo, over the weekend, marked his government’s handling of the
voter registration exercise excellent, claiming he was not aware of widespread
discrimination that has punctuated the exercise especially in the Volta Region.
According to the President he has not heard of any instance in which anybody who
desired to register was disallowed from registering, adding that the exercise has so
far mostly been violence-free.
“One thing that I am most pleased about is that as we undertake the voter
registration, in Ashanti Region and the rest of the country, except for some few
isolated places, it has been peaceful. I have not heard of any instance in which
someone who is duly qualified is disallowed from registering at any registration
center, everyone enjoys the freedom to register,” the President said.
“This is the most important thing, that unity and peace will prevail in Ghana,” the
President said in the Ashanti Region in Twi.
Interestingly, even while he was speaking, the thuggish overthrow of a registration
center at kasoa in the Central Region by the President’s own Minister for Special
Development Initiatives was still fresh in the news.
Mavis Hawa Koomson, who is also the MP for Awutu Senya East, led a gang of
some fifteen hirelings to seize the motor cycle of unarmed civilians and burn them as
part of an operation to prevent them from registering onto the new voters’ roll.
In New Edubiase, in the Ashanti Region, native Ashantis had reportedly gone around
town to fish out non Akans, especially Ewes and Northerners and ordered them to
leave the area and go and register elsewhere.
Many NDC polling station executives had had their heads smashed with stones by
NPP thugs. In the Asutifi South Constituency, the sitting MP, Alhaji Collins Dauda
had his eyes stuffed with pepper spray by NPP hoodlums.
In the Bono region, a teacher, Silas Wulonchamey, who was mistaken for an NDC
member, was stabbed to death.
In the Northern region tensions and violence led to Yaa NaaAbukari Mahama
complaining about the tensions.
In Greater Accra, the President’s party hoodlums, Invisible and Delta Forces
members masked as National Security agents surrounded the homes of some NDC
Parliamentary Candidates, including John Dumelo of Ayawaso West Wuogon and
Ben Ayiku of Ledzokuku.
As for the Volta Region, the Police and army personnel that the President sent in
went from house to house, beating and arresting people on hunches.
The violence that has characterized the registration was so much that the Ghana Bar
Association, Catholic Bishops Conference, National House of Chiefs and the
Christian Council of Ghana had to release statements and condemn the animalistic
behavior of security agents and party thugs inspired by the Akufo Addo
administration.