By: Gregory Pilkington Amoah
30/8/2024
The Minority in Parliament is cautioning Government to desist from deploying the military in a manner that is not consistent with its mandate and as a force to subvert the democratic right of Ghanaians after Agric Minister Bryan Acheampong announced that the military will be deployed an various border points to curb the smuggling of grains out of the country.
These concerns of the Minority according to Ranking Member on the Defensce and Interior Committee of Parliament are anchored on what they term as calculated use of the military in border towns across the country during the 2020 General Elections to intimidate voters.
Addressing the Press, the caucus were critical of Minister for Food and Agriculture Bryan Acheampong and Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul’s inability to provide any evidence to establish the inability of the Ghana Immigration Service and the Customs Service with the former being the body statutorily empowered to manage and patrol the country’s borders as a first line of defense while the latter plays a preventive function along the borders.
The caucus is further drawing inference of a similar deployment to quell the alleged rise of secessionist groups in some parts of the Volta and Oti regions in the run-up to the 2020 elections which threat evaporated right after the elections.
James Agalga added that,
“Such is the political chicanery of the government we are dealing with, so Ghanaians have reason to take the recent announcement with a pinch of salt. The Minister for Agriculture, Hon Bryan Acheampong, who made the border closure announcement, is the very person who has declared time and again to do everything to wreck the chances of the NDC to win the December 7, 2024 election. His reckless and incendiary statements have attracted widespread condemnation and exposed him as the arrowhead of the NPP gang working to undermine free and fair elections and thus destabilize our dear country.”
He further opined that,
“Hon. Bryan Acheampong will stop at nothing to execute the dastardly plot hatched by the government, which he brazenly asserts. He lacks the moral uprightness and credibility required in the situation. We urge the development partners who may wish to support Ghana to join us in insisting on a credible task force primarily made up of experts to oversee the drawing up and execution of plans to alleviate the situation. Otherwise, as usual, the government and its henchmen will line their pockets while Ghanaians go hungry”.
The Minority is therefore cautioning the Akufo-Addo/ Bawumia- led government to desist from deploying our revered military in a manner that is not consistent with its mandate and use the institution as a force to subvert the democratic right of
Ghanaians to vote devoid of an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.