Election 2012: Akufo-Addo threatens mayhem if…

The Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, last Friday, gave an indication that his supporters would resort to cutting off parts of the country, raping women, and carrying out ethnic cleansing among other heinous crimes if President John Dramani Mahama did not hand over power to him after the December 7 polls.

Nana Addo, who was addressing some retired security officers including ex-Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) of the Ghana Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Joseph Boateng Dankwa, ex-Greater Accra Police boss, DCOP Douglas Akrofi Asiedu at Koforidua in the Eastern Region, suggested he would go the Ouattara-style presidency which saw the deaths of thousands and many mass graves in Cote d’ Ivoire.

The NPP flag bearer, who is the author of “The Stolen verdict” against ex-president Jerry John Rawlings, told the retired security officers that “the Ghanaian people expect nothing less than that from our caretaker President, if a similar situation was to arise. We do not want to see a Laurent Gbagbo here in Ghana.”

Speaking on the theme “Maintaining Peace and Security” the man, who has dubbed the impending election an “all-die-be-die” affair, noted that “Our country has an enviable record of the smooth transfer of power after elections. In 2001, the government of President Rawlings handed over peacefully to the NPP government of President John Agyekum Kufuor.

In 2009, President Kufuor, after the defeat of the NPP by the slimmest of margins in Ghana’s or indeed, Africa’s electoral history, handed over peacefully to the government of President Mills.”

Nana Addo admitted his party has had to restrain militants. Nana Addo’s comments comes six months after his party’s National Chairman, Jake Obestebi Lamptey, on radio programme justified violent clashes in Cote d’Ivoire by drawing similarities between what he described as the suppressions of Akans in that country, adding Ghanaians should not be surprised when Akans wakeup to demand their birthrights.

In 2008, the NPP leading in only two out of 10 regions almost declared itself winners of the elections. The two regions were Ashanti and Eastern regions.

In Cote d’ Ivoire, President Ouattara for a year cut off the northern parts of the country from the rest, took power in April 2011 with at least 3,000 people killed and 150 women raped during the conflict period, often in targeted acts perpetrated along political, ethnic, and religious lines.