Probe “shameful” police brutality - Akufo-Addo

The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akufo-Addo has condemned the police brutality on the unarmed protestors near the Electoral Commission on Wednesday.

Scores of demonstrators were injured after the police sprayed hot water on them, tear-gassed and horse whipped them for breaching the route rules.

Nana Addo has described the act as “shameful.”

“A group of Ghanaians went on a peaceful demonstration yesterday to press home their demand for a new register. This peaceful demonstration was turned by the police into a bloody affair – water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets. It is a great shame on our country, and it is a tragedy for Ghana.

"The democratic gains that our people have made, they are not going back. We are not going back on democracy. We are not going back to police rule in Ghana. We are not going back to one-man rule,” the three-time flagbearer of the NPP said in Bolgatanga during his ‘Rise and Build’ tour.

Probe “shameful” police brutality - Akufo-Addo

Sep 17, 2015 at 5:19pm

SHARE THIS PAGE

Comments ( 0 )

[Nana+Addo%3A+%22It+is+a+great+shame+on+our+country.%22]

Nana Addo: "It is a great shame on our country."

The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akufo-Addo has condemned the police brutality on the unarmed protestors near the Electoral Commission on Wednesday.

Scores of demonstrators were injured after the police sprayed hot water on them, tear-gassed and horse whipped them for breaching the route rules.

Nana Addo has described the act as “shameful.”

“A group of Ghanaians went on a peaceful demonstration yesterday to press home their demand for a new register. This peaceful demonstration was turned by the police into a bloody affair – water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets. It is a great shame on our country, and it is a tragedy for Ghana.

"The democratic gains that our people have made, they are not going back. We are not going back on democracy. We are not going back to police rule in Ghana. We are not going back to one-man rule,” the three-time flagbearer of the NPP said in Bolgatanga during his ‘Rise and Build’ tour.

He stated Ghanaians, after years of dictatorship, have accepted multi-party democracy and will no longer tolerate acts aimed at cowing the citizenry into submission.

“We are determined to continue down the path of democratic engagement and an open society where its citizens can go about their work peacefully. Brute force by the police against unarmed citizens exercising their constitutional rights, should be a thing of the past,” he stated.

He assured all NPP members and sympathisers, and the majority of Ghanaians and stakeholders in Ghana’s electoral process, who are desirous of a new voters’ register ahead of the 2016 election, that, “we want the world to know that no amount of intimidation is going to stop those of us asking for a new register to go about our peaceful advocacy for a new register.”

“Commission of Enquiry”

Whilst associating himself fully with the “excellent statement that has been put out by the General Secretary of our party on this issue”, Nana Akufo-Addo made a demand of President Mahama.

In the wake of this unprovoked attack, Nana Akufo-Addo stated that “I believe the President of the Republic is duty-bound to establish a commission of enquiry to go into the events of yesterday into how come the Police behaved the way that they did, and make the appropriate recommendations.”

The NPP flagbearer further called on Ghanaians to follow the example of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who is asking the voices of all Ghanaians to be heard on the matter of the voters’ register, “so it becomes clear what the people want.”