GBA empathises with Sam George but condemns Mahama et al

The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has weighed into the unanimous condemnation of the violence that erupted during the by-election in the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency. According to GBA, the use of firearms was an affront to Ghana’s hard-won democratic credentials. “The Bar finds it is most alarming and shameful that people should sustain gunshot wounds and others, including a member of Ghana’s legislative arm of Government, be assaulted by persons some of whom were masked, and hereby condemns in no uncertain terms the actions of the perpetrators,” the Association said in a statement dated February 4, 2019. The above line in the statement is in direct reference to an assault on the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram Constituency, Sam George, at the grounds. He was assaulted by uniformed security officers said to be operatives of the National Security Council.

The statement called on security agencies to ensure the proper holistic training of all persons to be deployed “to ensure the safety of the electoral process in preparation for the 2020 elections and reassure the general populace of their safety”. It called for a thorough investigation into the incident and the charging and prosecution of all the perpetrators. Meanwhile, the Bar has warned all political leaders and actors to be “extremely” circumspect in their utterances. This comes in the wake of former President John Dramani Mahama’s threat of his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), unleashing violence in equal measure against the security forces he is convinced are disguised members of the Invisible Forces and Delta Forces, the two major pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) vigilante groups. The Bar said politicians must “exercise maximum restraint at all times to enable their followers to emulate their example”. Source: editors.3news.com|Ghana