'Soldiers stopping registrants big error; even Rawlings’ PNDC wouldn’t allow this' - GPCC

The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) has described as questionable, the timing of the Ministry of Defence’s deployment of personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces just as the Electoral Commission of Ghana was about starting its nationwide mass registration exercise, which ends today, 6 August 2020.

Tensions have been on the rise in the Banda constituency of the Bono Region following a faceoff between the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia and some soldiers, after a roadblock was mounted to prevent some settler communities from accessing the registration centres.

Also, parts of the Volta region have been flooded by the military to ensure aliens do not smuggle themselves into Ghana through unimproved routes along the Ghana-Togo border.

However, the Minister of Defence, Mr Dominic Nitiwul, has had cause to explain on several occasions that the soldiers are on the ground to assist the Ghana Immigration Service and other security agencies in ensuring that foreigners do not enter Ghana with COVID-19 while insisting that their presence is also to safeguard Ghana’s territories against spillover terrorist activities in neighbouring countries.

But stating their position on the matter, an executive council member of GPCC and President of the Full Gospel Church, Bishop S.N Mensah, said: “I’m asking myself: are we now in the revolutionary era? Even in the era of the PNDC under Rawlings, we didn’t see this behaviour of the military”.

Bishop Mensah told Blessed Sogah, host of State of the Nation on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, 5 August 2020 that: “Initially, the understanding we had was that the military was managing the borders because of the COVID, which was a great thing”.

“But now, their stories keep changing and that becomes a major worry and a concern [as to] whether you can then trust the government because of the various positions of the functions of the military under this arrangement”, he noted.

“Is the military present at all the borders of Ghana? If yes, why are we only witnessing a challenge and a problem in one region, which is the Volta Region. if there are same problems in all the regions and they are handling the whole thing in a more uniform manner, probably people wouldn’t complain”, he guessed.

“But if it appears that the stronghold of one particular party seems to be going through these challenges, I think it’s a concern”, he observed.

“Also, and unfortunately, that should not have been the job of the military but again the military took instructions from the government, so, they are just doing what they have been asked to do, but to prevent people, to disenfranchise people from registering, that is a big error and that should not be the job of the military”, he said.