It is not a crime to be loyal to a political party – NDC

The Volta region for years has been described as the stronghold of the National Democratic Congress considering the number of votes, they accumulate from the area in both presidential and parliamentary elections.

But, according to the National Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, this phenomenon has become a threat for the New Patriotic Party in the run towards the 2020 general elections leading to their attempt to prevent citizens in the Oti and Volta regions from participating in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

“Why is President Akufo-Addo up in arms against innocent citizens and innocent ethnic groups just to massage his political ego? Is the president not supposed to unite rather than divide this country?” he questioned.

Speaking in at NDC Press Conference on Tuesday, August 4, 2020, Mr. Gyamfi said the Nana Addo-led government have deliberately deployed military personnel to Volta, Ahafo and Oti regions to suppress and intimidate people from registering for the new voters' ID.

Adding that: “When did it become a crime to be deemed as a local to a particular political tradition.”

Notwithstanding, the New Patriotic Party has denied these claims stressing that no Ghanaian has been brutalized as speculated by the NDC.

The Minister of Defence, Mr Dominic Nitiwul, has also mentioned that not a single eligible Ghanaian has been prevented from participating in the last phase of the registration which is expected to end on Thursday, August 6, 2020.

Mr. Nitiwul again condemned the act of busing people to voters registration centres despite both parties signing an agreement with the Regional Security Council against the act.

“Both parties were busing people. I am not going to sit down here and say it is only one party that was busing. They were all guilty of doing it. That is the briefing I had from the military, adding that “REGSEG actually deployed the soldiers and police to implement their orders,” the Defence Minister reiterated.