NCCE blames recent political disturbances on political leaders

Wa, Sept 10, GNA - Mr Kofi Adomah, Upper West Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has blamed leaders of political parties for the recent disturbances in some parts of the country. He said some leaders of political parties were undermining the peace and they in turn accuse the NCCE for not educating the electorate to act responsibly. "The NCCE does not buy guns for supporters of any political parties, neither does it encourages supporters to take to arms at the least provocation."

Mr Adomah was speaking at a forum organised by the NCCE to interact with the media in Wa and also, to educate them on the activities and programmes it had embarked on to promote a peaceful election. "There could be peace if the people decided to have peace and" and urged leaders of political parties to tell their supporters to refrain from doing acts that have the potential of causing confusion. "We must discourage supporters from arming themselves against other political parties that they perceived as opponents," Mr Adomah said. "Election is an occasion when people vote for someone to represent them in government. It is not an occasion for war to warrant the purchasing of arms as well as physical attacks on political opponents and the casting of insinuations or telling lies about other candidate," he added.

Mr Adomah said what Ghanaians needed most was peace to enable the electorate to analyse the campaign messages, to make good choices for the benefit of all.

The NCCE Regional Director said the Commission had carried out 49 programmes out of the 58 it embarked upon between August and September to educate the electorate to promote peace in the communities. Some of the programmes involved interacting with people with disabilities, women groups, aspiring Members of Parliament, members of religious organisations and traditional rulers.