NINGO-PRAMPRAM Member of Parliament (NDC MP), Samuel Nartey George, is demanding that compensation is paid to victims of the violence that characterised the January 31, 2019, Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.
In a statement on the floor of Parliament, in Accra, on Tuesday, the MP said two years on, the eight victims recommended by the Emil Short Commission to be compensated have still not been attended to.
The victims are Theophilus Sedofu, Seidu Zaneh, James Moore, Mohammed Alhassan, Mr Ishawu Yaro, Mrs Justine and two other unnamed persons.
The violence, perpetrated by mask-wearing national security operatives led to the formation of the Commission, which recommended among other things, that compensations were paid to the victims of the assault and violence.
“It is heartbreaking, Mr Speaker, for me to stand in the people’s chamber two years on and recount how none of these individuals have received any compensation or support from the State. I am heartbroken as I myself was a victim of the recklessness that characterised the action of state operatives on the day,” Mr Nartey George, stressed.
Expressing his disappointment in government for not implementing the recommendations of the Commission, he said “our constituents deserve better. The citizens of the Republic demand action.
Mr Nartey George said “we owe it as the representatives of the people and the true bastion of democracy to hold agents of state security to account for their infractions of law. We cannot fail. We must demand that justice is served the eight citizens whom government has pledged to compensate.”
He said the tenets of democracy must be protected, and “the rule of law, accountability and the protection of the human rights of citizens are essential in this democratic dispensation and nothing or no one must be allowed to jeopardise this.”
Mr Nartey George said “We represent the last ray of hope for these citizens who have elected us here”.
He asked the Speaker of Parliament to use his offices to direct all relevant state institutions responsible for the payment of compensations to the affected citizens to act expeditiously on the matter.
The Chief Whip of the Majority Group and NPP MP for Nsawam-Adogyiri, Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh, said limiting the statement to the Ayawaso West Wuogon incident was selective and intended to achieve political means.
No government, Mr Annoh-Dompreh said, has mustered the courage to investigate what led to violence in previous by-elections, but the Akufo-Addo led administration was able to so.
To him, constituting a Commission of Inquiry to probe circumstances surrounding the violence alone showed a commitment of government to the welfare of the victims.
