Colonel E. Aggrey-Quashie
The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has indicated that no specific group was targeted in the voters registration exercise at Banda in the Bono region.
There has been a report that the military placed registration restrictions on a section of the community in the Banda area after some people being conveyed in trucks were stopped.
But a statement signed by the Director of Public Relations, GAF, Colonel E. Aggrey-Quashie, said “no specific ethnic group was targeted in this regard.”
According to the statement, on July 30, 2020, the Bono Regional Security Council met representatives of the two main political parties – NPP and NDC – to deliberate on the peaceful conduct of the registration exercise.
It said “this was in the wake of the disturbances that resulted in the unfortunate demise of one person.”
The statement added that the agreement signed by Joe Danquah (NPP) and Ahmed Ibrahim (NDC MP – Banda) and witnessed by the Regional Minister stated as follows: “We the undersigned agreed today to maintain peace in the Banda District during the remaining days of the voters registration exercise and after, until the end of the 2020 general elections in December 2020.”
• That the REGSEC will give the necessary security to the Banda Constituency and the entire Region, before, during and after the process of the 7th December Election. The REGSEC and the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders should meet the Chiefs to determine the boundaries of Banda.
• The two Parliamentary Candidates (Mr. Joe Danquah and Hon. Ahmed Ibrahim MP) should stop bussing people to the registration centres, if indeed they were ordinary residents; they should go there on their own volition.
• Political parties should educate their agents at the registration centres to fill challenge forms in challenging people whose citizenship or residency they doubted.
• That no physical violence should be used in preventing people from registering.
• That the two candidates should pledge their support to ensure peace in the Constituency by signing the Peace Agreement offered by REGSEC
According to the statement, “The security agencies were therefore available to support the REGSEC-brokered Agreement. No specific ethnic group was targeted in this regard. The general public is accordingly informed of these developments.”
By Melvin Tarlue