The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has called on the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to immediately withdraw armed officers from registration centres at Banda in the Bono region.
This is despite the GAF’s insistence that it has not deployed armed officers in the area.
Videos circulating on social media had earlier shown a number of military personnel questioning registrants at a particular registration centre while preventing others from registering for the voters’ ID in the area.
Asiedu Nketia said the presence of armed personnel has deterred a lot of people from registering for a voters ID card, a development he believes will disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians in Banda.
“The problem we have is about ethnic profiling which this government is persistently doing, it threatens the peace of this country. When military men were dispatched to the Togo border, the government explained that they were there to prevent police from entering the country with COVID-19. Talking about the deployment in this area, targetting the same Ewe ethnic group, it is a very dangerous thing that is happening in this country.”
The National Democratic Congress flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama and the Adontenhene of Bongase Community in the Banda District of the Bono Region, Nana Yakubu have both condemned the deployment of military deployment into the community.
While Mr Mahama described the actions of the government as dangerous in a statement, Nana Yakubu said these happenings are preventing some fisherfolk from participating in the registration exercise in the community thus generating tension in the town.
