The Minister-designate for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, has described the loss of lives at Techiman in the 2020 general election as “regrettable”.
Mr Korsah who is the Member of Parliament for the Techiman South constituency said the constituency has put the incident, which he said has become a blot on the area, behind it and forging ahead as one people.
“It was a very regrettable and sad event. It should not have happened under any circumstance and I don’t expect it to happen again going forward because of the lessons we have learnt,” he said when he appeared before the Appointments Committee for his vetting in Parliament, Accra, yesterday.
Techiman South became the center of attraction after two persons were hit by warning shots fired by military personnel deployed to the area to ensure calm during the collation of the parliamentary results.
Several people were also reported injured from the shots fired by the military and police.
According to Mr Korsah who is currently the Deputy Minister for the Local Government Ministry, the turn of events was surprising considering the unity which existed between the parties ahead of the elections.
“In the run-up to the election in Techiman South, we had relative peace. There was cordiality and for the first time, the parties came together and prosecuted their campaigns devoid of violence and tensions. Little did we know that on the 8th of December after the declaration of the results, we are going to have that sad and unfortunate incident.”
As politicians, he said, winning an election to affect the lives of the people positively remains the object but the same must not come at the expense of human life adding that he has bridged the factions and reached out to the affected families.
“A lot of lessons have been learned and we have come together even much more before that unfortunate incident. I relate very well with the families of the deceased and we have helped them to get back on life,” he said.
To bring the perpetrators to book, he revealed that the then Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, had assured that investigations were underway but were yet to receive any updates.
With the 2024 election in sight, Mr Korsah said the constituency had resolved to maintain the peace and prosecute the electioneering campaign in a peaceful atmosphere before, during and after the polls.