Voters registration saga: Akufo-Addo to probe alleged military brutalities of ‘Voltarians’, others

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said he will institute a committee to investigate the alleged military brutalities on Ghanaians during the recently held voters registration exercise.

The president at a speech at Anlo in the Volta region Thursday said he took this decision after a meeting with some chiefs of the region who visited him.

“The lingering anxiety about the deployment led to a delegation of Chiefs from the Volta Regional House of Chiefs led by its president, coming to see me at Jubilee House on what I believed was termed ‘the military invasion of the Volta Region.

“We had what I considered, to be frank, and mutually respectful discussions and after two and half hours, I suggested to them that I will set up a committee composed of members from both sides to interrogate further, the matters they had brought so we can have a satisfactory resolution.”

He added, “In other words, these confidential discussions were not completed and as I waited to get the names of the three nominees from the eminent Chiefs, some members of the delegation started making public statements about what they said had taken place at the meeting.”

He stressed: “It serves as a purpose at this stage to offer a different account of what took place. So, the first thing to say, I am going to go ahead, if the Chiefs are still prepared to submit the names of their three nominees as was agreed to constitute this committee to resolve quickly all the issues and reassure everybody. Hopefully, this would allow us to deal with the matter of the border post at Leklebi Kame which provoked such controversies and the incident in the town of Honuta which gave birth to the allegations of military harassment; corrective measures if called for will be instituted”.

The President also stated that “there are currently 1,000 military personnel deployed along the country’s borders, of which 163 are deployed along the Volta Region border,” while adding that the deployment could not have been an invasion as Volta region remains an integral part of the country.”