The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has explained that its officers were deployed to Banda in the Bono region to enforce an agreement between the NDC and NPP parliamentary candidates in the constituency.
It comes after the NDC accused the military of advancing an ethnic agenda by government by preventing minority groups at Banda from registering in the ongoing registration exercise.
The GAF in a statement said they were invited by two parties after the agreement.
Below are details of the statement from GAF
Following the reported allegation of registration restrictions being placed on a section of the community in the Banda area by the military, it has become necessary to situate the issue in context and set the record straight.
The Military wishes to state that on 30th July 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. This was in the wake of the disturbances that resulted in the unfortunate demise of one person.
The Agreement signed by Mr. Joe Danquah (NPP) and Hon Ahmed Ibrahim (NDC MP – Banda) and witnessed by the Hon 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.”
The full details of the Agreement were as follows:
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. 1
That the two candidates should pledge their support to ensure peace in the Constituency by signing the Peace Agreement offered by REGSEC
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.
SIGNED
E AGGREY-QUASHIE
Colonel
Director Public Relations
Issued by the Public Relations Directorate, General Headquarters, Burma Camp, Accra
Tel: +233-544338030 Fax: +233-302772241
Email: website-dpr@ghq.mail.gh
Release No.20
August 2, 2020
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM