Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu
THE Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has said it is unpatriotic for people to resort to “scaremongering” ahead of this year’s general election despite assurances from the Electoral Commission (EC) that things will be alright.
According to him, the electoral management body has given full assurance that it will ensure a smooth conduct and that “the polls will be peaceful, transparent and fair.”
“The President has also assured that whatever it takes to make these elections peaceful the executive will ensure that,” he said yesterday at the opening of the 3rd Meeting of the 4th Session of the Seventh Parliament.
“Men and women of goodwill must urge the commission to do what is needful and appropriate, but it will be most unpatriotic to resort to scaremongering as some people are trying to do as if this is the first election this country is going to have,” he added.
“Mr. Speaker, we have had several elections; sometimes, we must admit that we push ourselves to the brink, but Ghana has survived and we must count on the goodwill and the conscience of all of us to do what is right and not to unnecessarily engage in scaremongering as if the heavens are going to cave in on us,” Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu indicated.
On the issue of the Volta ‘secessionists’, the Majority Leader said he believed no Member of Parliament in Ghana would buy into that agenda, pointing out that “this country has had a referendum in 1992 to resolve as a nation that we would live together and we resolved to also protect the stability of this country.”
Quoting the former head of state, General I.K. Acheampong, the Majority Leader said, “This is our country with a common destiny and we live in one nation. This nation shall continue in perpetuity.”
Minority Leader
Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu described the activities of the secessionists as an “ugly threat to the stability, sovereignty and territory of Ghana and the Volta Region.”
“The President, as Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, is assured that he has the full support of the House to deal decisively and ruthlessly to the threat to the sovereignty and integrity of this country,” he said.
“We should endeavour to uphold the provisions of the Constitution, particularly Article 4, which guarantees the sovereignty and united Ghana Republic,” he added.
By Ernest Kofi Adu