Commission of Inquiry a ‘smoke screen’ – Asiedu Nketia

General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has said the Commission of Inquiry tasked by the presidency to investigate the violence that occurred at the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election is only a ploy to protect perpetrators of the violence.

According to him, the whole idea of the Commission is flawed at birth because the president did not follow the right procedure in setting up such commissions.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, the NDC scribe said the constitution states clearly that, a constitutional instrument is to be laid before Parliament before a commission is established saying as far as he is concern nothing of that sort has been done. Asiedu Nketia argued that such an important committee cannot be established by just issuing a statement.

“I am surprised and even confused, because there is a procedure for the setting up of a Commission of Inquiry, which procedure has not been followed at all. This Commission of Inquiry has been flawed at birth, so I want to believe it is a smoked screen move which the president is using to protect its own appointees,” he told Umaru Sanda on Eyewitness News on Wednesday.

The Vice President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia announced that government had set up a Commission of Inquiry with the consent of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is out of the country to probe circumstances that led to the violence that occurred during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.

Former Commissioner at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Justice Emile Short has been appointed as Chairperson of the Commission while former Dean of the Faculty of Law of GIMPA and private legal practitioner, Mr. Ernest Kofi Abotsi has been appointed as Secretary to the Commission.

Henrietta Mensah Bonsu and Patrick K. Acheampong have also been appointed as members of the Commission.

The setting up of the commission followed the shooting incident that occurred near a La Bawaleshie polling centre that temporarily disrupted the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election and resulted in at least 13 persons sustaining injuries.