‘No amount of guns, intimidation, order-from-above will suppress people’s will’ – Otokunor

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has referred to President Nana Akufo-Addo as an “outgoing” President and urged him to concede to former President John Mahama, insisting the biggest opposition party won Monday’s polls.

The party’s Deputy General Secretary, Mr Peter Boamah Otokunor, told journalists Tuesday night at a press conference that they will resist any attempt by the government to collude with the Electoral Commission to steal the will of the people.

“We shall resist, in no uncertain terms, and without equivocation, any attempt by the President Akufo-Addo government, to suppress the will of the people, to subvert the will of the people, to steal the mandate of the people with criminal collusion of the EC.

“While at it, let me use the opportunity to call on the outgoing president, President Akufo-Addo, to concede defeat in the interest of the sanctity of our democracy,” he said.

He reiterated the party’s claim to have won the majority of seats in Parliament, saying it points to presidential victory as well.

“The presidential results are not isolation, they come with an overwhelming majority in parliament and as you may be aware, it tells you simply that there is a direction and thinking of the resolve of the people and the direction and the thinking of the resolve of the people is what has given us this important sweet victory for President John Dramani Mahama.

“For the benefit of the doubt and for the benefit of the misled media, who are publishing fake results and pursuing this nefarious agenda on behalf of the government, I would want to go through some of the parliamentary seats that we have won”, he said, which he did.

Mr Otokunor charged members of the NDC to keep being alert until victory is declared for the NDC.

“It is not over until we compel Jean Mensa and the EC to let the true will of the people prevail, so, while at it, it is important that as they’ve started mobilising state security and off-state security to threaten Returning officers, to threaten EC officials, to get them to change results, we must show them that the power of the people has always reigned supreme and for that matter, no amount of guns, no amount of weapons, no amount of intimidation, no matter of order-from-above, will prevail beyond the power of the people.

“And the only way, ladies and gentlemen, that we can exemplify the power of the people, is to mass up in our numbers, in our multitudes at the collation centres where they are finalising the collation, whether regional level, constituency level, or national level.

“We would open our eyes, increase our lenses of vigilance, we’ll follow through, already, we have caught them, they are trying to smuggle some unusual pink sheets into the collation centre at the national collation centre and our agents have exposed them.

“We shall continue to be vigilant, we shall ensure that the true will of the people will prevail”, Mr Otokunor noted.