The Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Dormaa West Constituency of the Bono Region, Stephen Azorba, has declared that election-related violence in the country will come to an end if members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), also ceasefire.
Mr. Azorba was responding to a question by host of Angel FM’s morning show, Captain Smart, on when election-related violence will stop in the country with reference to the violence that characterised the voter registration exercise at Dormaa West Constituency during the weekend.
Mr. Azorba said that, “se krukru no gyae a, keka no nso begyae” to wit if you stop, I will stop too.
According to him, the NDC is not a party that supports electoral violence and violence is not an activity that people endorse.
He, however, said that “if the NPP does not confront them with violence, they shall also not respond in a like manner.”
The Dormaa West NPP Chairman, Kwame Owusu, on his part, stated that if the youth of Ghana decide that they won’t follow politicians or allow themselves to be used by the politicians, election-related violence would come to a standstill.
According to him, the youth must be wise enough to realise that, the politicians they are “dying for” wouldn’t have his family engaging in violence to secure a position for them [politicians]. He said that the youth wouldn’t even benefit from the said politicians if the politician gains power.
Mr. Owusu also disclosed that he has been a victim of election-related violence in the past. “As I speak to you now, I once sustained an injury just below my eye after being hit in the face with a bicycle chain,” he said, during the interview.
He alleged that the gentleman who burnt the pickup truck [meant for COVID-19 operations] during the violence at the EC office in Dormaa West Constituency, is the same person who attacked him with the bicycle chain.
He, however, did not reveal the name of his assailant.
The Electoral Commission (EC) set aside August 8 to 9, 2020 for a mop-up exercise of the just ended voter registration exercise at all district offices of the commission.
The NDC members in the constituency accused the NPP of busing ‘thugs’ to intimidate their members from registering.
The NPP on their part also accused the NDC of bringing people from Cote D’Ivoire to register which later led to violence leaving some persons injured and one Kofi Labet dead.
