One of the masked men said to be national security operatives who allegedly fired the gunshots[/caption] Former President John Mahama has once more warned the government against further deployment of armed persons he described as hoodlums, to any future elections in Ghana as such persons will be met with force to retreat. He had earlier on Thursday stated no political party in Ghana can beat his National Democratic Congress when it comes to unleashing violence because of its revolutionary history; a statement that has been condemned by many.
That comment was on the back of the violent incident recorded near a polling station at the just ended Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election where heavily armed hooded masked men said to be operatives of national security stormed, triggering shooting of at least eight persons. Despite the condemnation, Mahama said, the people of Ghana though peaceful, will not sit aloof for such persons to be deployed to any election again because they will resist that. “They shall never deploy such a force in any election in Ghana again; we will resist it! You haven’t seen armed men running away before? When the power of the people come after you, you will run,” Mahama replied critics who have demanded he apologise for his earlier statement. Though the police denied knowing the operatives whose action spilled over to a polling station and temporiarly disrupted voting, Minister of State in charge of National Security, Bryan Acheampong said those personnel were his men. He justified the deployment of the gun-toting national security men to the area during voting hours, stating they were only acting on actionable intelligence which they had been working on for the last month. But Mahama suggested the action by the National Security Council was unconstitutional because per the 1992 constitution, the Council is not required to have any sort of force for deployment. [caption id="attachment_110655" align="aligncenter" width="960"]