A Driver of the Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Peter Boamah Otukono has been arrested and reportedly tortured as NDC warns that the Akufo Addo administration is systematically using security agencies to intimidate them from protesting the controversial election declaration.
According to a lawyer for the NDC, Victor Kojoga Adawudu, when he was called to represent Eric Avugah-the incarcerated driver, but the BNI refused him an audience, in what he was later reliably gathered that Mr. Avugah was being tortured own up to certain things under duress.
“..It is because they are torturing him. They are torturing him to admit to certain things that he ought not to, and that’s what they are doing,” Adawudu lamented, saying the driver was tasered.
Victor Adawudu noted that the security apparatuses under the Akufo Addo administration may be working deliberately to cow the NDC whose members have mounted a spirited nationwide protest against what they describe as a stolen verdict by President Akufo Addo, who was declared winner of the December 7, presidential elections.
“ so in one breath, because of the situation [post-election protests], let’s have peace and you turn around to intimidate us. And the Christian Council, the Peace Council, etc. are not looking at the issues. They should look at the issues. They should not just say: ‘go to court, we want peace. Go to court.’ They must enquire into the issues; the illegalities and the unacceptable things that are being done by public officials, you don’t want to talk about that.” Adawudu told TV3.
The NDC has flatly rejected the presidential election declaration with the hierarchy of the party, including Deputy General Secretary Otukono endorsing what they call peaceful protests against the Electoral Commission’s verdict.
Targeting Otukono through his driver is seen as a systematic plan to cow the opposition party from its sworn threat to fight against the questionable declaration.
The latest trend follows an incident last Saturday when the NDC flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama allegedly escaped a suspected assassination attempt from a Defence Intelligence soldier who sneaked into Mahama’s office with a loaded concealed weapon.
Mahama had flatly rejected the results of the elections, citing massive manipulation of the figures that saw Akufo Addo winning the presidency.
Meanwhile, an unprecedented display of incompetence, a flip-flopping Electoral Commission (EC) had issued more than five different presidential results which has infuriated the NDC and some section of the population who are now convinced that the presidential election was stolen from John Mahama for the incumbent President Akufo Addo.
The EC’s declared results have since proven to be mathematically impossible, with percentages allotted to candidates tallying up to more than 100%.
This and many more strange actions of the EC has triggered nationwide protests with the express endorsement of the NDC top brass.