The National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Savannah Region is demanding the reinstatement of 102 recruits for the upcoming population and housing census who it says were later expelled because they were perceived to be people of other political parties instead of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
In a statement signed by the NDC’s Savannah Region Communication Officer, Malik Basintale, it is alleged that the disqualification of the staff had been at the insistence of NPP thugs who had besieged the training centres to disrupt the training programs.
“We are calling on the Government, the Ghana statistical service and all stakeholders to as a matter of urgency reinstate all qualified persons victimized by virtue of assumed political affiliation, ethnicity or any other bizarre factor. Failure to acquiesce to our concerns, We shall take appropriate steps including the withdrawal of cooperation in this exercise, “ the NDC statement read.
“…The denial of access to our homes by recruited staff also belonging to the New Patriotic Party(NPP) and other legal remedies available to us in protecting the entire citizenry of the Savannah region.”
Justifying its stance, the NDC alleges that the invasion of some training centres by thugs belonging to the NPP.
These acts, it said, “have so far been reported from the North East Gonja District, North Gonja District, West Gonja Municipal among others, having over 102 names of qualified persons mysteriously evicted from the list after being shortlisted for training. The expulsion of these names was done after some NPP thugs in these districts resisted and asked they were replaced with names of their party foot soldiers.”
Also, it said the NDC has received reports that such politicizations are also fuelled by people trying to catch the eye of the President for the position of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives.
“This outrightly confirms rumours of an intended sabotage of our district and constituency numbers to deny us the creation of new constituencies before the next election,” the statement said.