The Member of Parliament for Bawku Central Mahama Ayariga has cautioned President Akufo-Addo against any form of intervention in the political turmoil in neighboring Togo.
Mr. Ayariga believes the West African Country is capable of handling the upheavals resulting from protests against the 50-year-old Gnasingbe dynasty.
The caution by Ayariga, who is a senior member of the ECOWAS parliament, comes in the wake of calls for the President to intervene to ensure a resolution of the current impasse.
The Ranking member for Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, for instance, has faulted the President for his silence over happenings in Togo warning of repercussions for Ghana should things get out of hands.
Speaking to Starr News from Togo, where the ECOWAS Parliament has been sitting for the past 2 weeks, Mahama Ayariga explained systems in that country are capable of handling the matter.
“I don’t see what the President of Ghana is going to do here. It’s clearly not his place to be interfering in the domestic affairs of another country. You may want to allow the internal processes to run and play out and then you see where it goes.
“I think that the most important thing is for all of us to remain sympathetic with the people of Togo and to urge them to continue to use peaceful means and to engage in constructive dialogue; to have the best interest of the country at heart in whatever they will ultimately do when the constitutional review committee presents its report. I think that’s how far we can go.”
Ayariga also admonished the Ghanaian media to be circumspect in their reportage of the happenings in Togo in order not to inflame passion. The Bawku Central MP believes recent reports of people fleeing to Ghana in a section of the Ghanaian media have not been entirely accurate.
The development he says has the potential of jeopardizing bilateral relations between Ghana and her neighbor.
“If you go to the border, everyday people are crossing….there are Ghanaians who are crossing to Togo to transact business, there are Togolese who are crossing to Ghana to transact business and this is a daily routine. I think that there are issues here, they are trying to deal with those issues but people are not fleeing as is been reported. That’s not the impression that we get here. People are living their lives normally.”
Meanwhile, the opposition in Togo have moved their protest originally scheduled for last Friday to the 6th and 7th of next month. The opposition has vowed to oust President Faure Gnasingbe.
