Major (rtd) Derrick Oduro
THE OPPOSITION National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been accused of peddling “pure propaganda” over the deployment of some military and police personnel to the border communities in the country.
The NDC Members of Parliament (MPs) alleged last week that the troops have “descended into the arena of partisan politics behaving like an appendage of the government,” a remark the Deputy Minister of Defence, Major (rtd) Derrick Oduro, found distasteful.
He said the allegations were “lies” that amounted to “pure propaganda” of the NDC, asserting that the “military has never been part of any political party and will not be.”
Minority Leader
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, had said the NDC had received reports of intimidation and harassment in some instances, particularly in the Volta Region, of the military entering houses and asking people questions about their eligibility of citizenship.
According to him, the security agents have “no authority under any law to ask any person: are you a citizen? The registration process is governed by law and if you have a reason to question any person of his citizenship, do so rightfully in accordance with the law and not with the intimidation of a gun or weapon.”
The NDC MP for Tamale South indicated that the party would not sit aloof for the security agents to “continue to intimidate and harass our party supporters and innocent Ghanaian citizens to aid the government in its quest of voter suppression,” saying “that is not acceptable under Ghanaian laws.”
Deputy Defence Minister
But the Deputy Defence Minister rebutted, saying the deployed troops had not harassed or intimidated any Ghanaian citizen except that “they want to make sure they perform their legitimate business of ensuring security for the nation.”
“They serve the state and not any group or individuals who constitute themselves as a political party or otherwise. It is never ever true that they are harassing or intimidating any Ghanaian citizen. It has never been true and will never be true.
“So whatever they claim they can go ahead and do their propaganda. It will not help them in any way. What can’t NDC do? In the past they brought up so many years of military exercises and created the impression as if it is a current exercise that the military is conducting. That is not true,” Major Oduro noted.
Deployment
He stated that the soldiers were deployed to the border in 2019 and wondered why the NDC did not complain in the past.
“Have we forgotten that Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa, ranking member for Foreign Affairs Committee, requested the Interior Minister to come and brief the House on the steps he (minister) had taken to ensure that terrorists would not near this country and attack us.
“While they were attacking Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and other nearby countries, the Interior Minister came here (Parliament) and said that troops had been deployed to the borders.
“Since 2019, they have been there at the borders – eastern border, northern border and southern border. They have been there for all that long,” he said.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House