Mahama duty-bound to look into police brutality – Nana Addo

Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has backed calls for a commission of inquiry to be established into the circumstances that led to the use of excessive force by the police on demonstrators last Wednesday.

Tear gas and rubber bullets were fired at the demonstrators, who were on a march to present a petition to the Electoral Commission of Ghana over the current voters’ register.

The action of the police left several injured while some of the protesters were arrested.

Speaking on the first day of his ‘Rise and Build Tour’ in the Upper East Region, Nana Addo demanded, as a matter of urgency, a commission of inquiry at the instance of the president into the incident.

“I believe the President of the Republic is duty-bound to establish a commission of enquiry to go into the events of [Wednesday] into how come the Police behaved the way that they did, and make the appropriate recommendations,” he said.

He described as a shame the action resorted to by the police against the “unarmed” protesters.

“It is a great shame on our country, and it is a tragedy for Ghana. The democratic gains that our people have made, they are not going back. We are not going back on democracy. We are not going back to police rule in Ghana. We are not going back to one-man rule.”

The march was organised by anti-government pressure group Let My Vote Count in partnership with Alliance for Accountable Government (AFAG) and Movement for Change.

They were joined by some members of the NPP.

Nana Addo said the party will not relent in its call for a new voters’ register ahead of the 2016 elections.

“We are determined to continue down the path of democratic engagement and an open society where its citizens can go about their work peacefully. Brute force by the police against unarmed citizens exercising their constitutional rights, should be a thing of the past.”

According to him, the call for a new voters’ register “will strengthen the credibility of the electoral system and therefore make the outcome of any electoral outcome easy for people to accept.

“It is the best way of consolidating and guaranteeing the peace of our country and the survival of our democracy, not because it will favour the NPP, but because it will favour our democracy.”

By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|editors.3news.com|Ghana

Twitter: @kwame_amoh