PRESSURE GROUP, OccupyGhana has asked Government to immediately constitute what it calls ‘a proper commission of inquiry under Chapter 23 of the Constitution’ to inquire into the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence and shooting incident that occurred in Accra.
It said the inquiry was necessary because “no person or group of persons should be allowed to destroy our reputation, disrupt our peace and denigrate the pillars of civility we have worked so hard to achieve.”
The by-election took place last Thursday and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate, Lydia Seyram Alhassan emerged victorious.
OccupyGhana said in a statement that “we are disappointed that a by-election right in the capital of Ghana could degenerate into such acts of violence, some of which were captured in pictures and videos that are making the rounds in the traditional and social media.”
It stated that “we condemn all such acts and call for the perpetrators to be brought to book and punished in accordance with the law.”
The statement pointed out that “we note that the Ghana Police has stated in a Press Release dated 31st January 2019 that it will investigate the incidents of violence,” adding “while agreeing that the police may investigate the matters with a view to causing the prosecution of offenders, we would propose that an independent body conducts a full-scale inquiry into the matter.”
According to the statement, “Some of the video footage that we have seen show that some of the masked men who are accused of the intimidation and violence, and certainly one of the persons who assaulted a Member of Parliament, were in vehicles that bore the name or insignia of the police. The police that stands accused, at the very least, of complicity in these matters, cannot investigate the overall issue of the violence that occurred.”
It said “We certainly are at pains to understand why security personnel being sent on election duties would have their faces covered as if they were on some special forces operations in a war zone. We find that unacceptable and a gross breach of modern day policing methods.”
BY Melvin Tarlue, DGN
