Martin Kpebu,
a legal practitioner, has recommended a review of the government’s white paper
on the Justice Emile Short Commission of Inquiry Report on the Ayawaso West
Wuogon Constituency by-election violence in the Greater Accra Region to avoid a
repetition of the incident before, during and after the 2020 elections.
Though he was not specific on portions needed
for review, he indicated that he did not agree with some conclusions made by
the state in the white paper and recalled the Commission describing the conduct
of Messrs A. Sulemana and Bright Akomea as “reprehensible”, which
bothered on “criminality”.
Mr Kpebu reiterated his call for their prosecution for their role in the violence,
and feared if not addressed, stakes will be high in 2020 general election. The
government he said, needed to review some conclusions it drew because after the
incident nobody has been held accountable.
Colonel Festus
Aboagye (rtd), a former military trainer and safety consultant, warned that “if
the nation doesn’t want another political violence, it has to go back to the whitepaper
and review it to avoid repetition of incident. I don’t agree with some conclusions made
by the state in whitepaper.
“We have the responsibility to protect global
political commitment the nation endorsed in 2005, which cautioned every state
with past atrocities not addressed likely to descend into instability, demand
list of vigilante groups made public as required by Vigilantism and Related
Offences Act, 2019 without names of institutions they are affiliated to,
processes to disband them, their command, control, communications, recovering
of weapons, equipment and freezing assets.
“Lack of synergy between what the Act seeks
to do and what National Peace Council-led processes seeks to do, result of the
government not adhering to calls for bill to wait for inputs from Commission,
lack of confidence the electorate have in police service and Electoral Commission
due to “pervasive influence” of political actors”.
During the by-election which took place on
January 31, 2019, some masked armed men purported to be officials of National
Security were captured on camera assaulting the citizenry including Sam George,
the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, in the Greater Accra Region.
A three-member committee was set up to
investigate the violence and made it findings and recommendations to the
president but months later, a whitepaper was issued rejecting some findings and
recommendations. -3news.com
