Comments by former President Mahama, that no political party in Ghana can outdo the National Democratic Congress in unleashing violence, has been condemned by the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party.
Mr. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako has said, it was wrong for the former president to make such a call; knowing very well the heated implications it could generate in the future.
Speaking to Peacefmonline.com, the NPP’s Ashanti Regional Chairman, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi noted that the call made by the former President is uncharacteristic of a leader whose sole aim is to govern a peaceful country such as Ghana.
For this reason, he called on the state to provide former President Mahama with a psychiatrist to examine his head before things get out of hand.
“Mahama is trying very hard to brainwash certain people in society. He is a radical man and believes so much in the ideology of militants. The state mustn’t allow him to persuade the vulnerable in society and a psychiatrist must quickly attend to him and let him know he is walking on a rough road”, Mr. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako said.
In his view, the former President shouldn’t pretend he didn’t hear his own General Secretary speak, when he famously declared on radio that the NDC, has accepted the formation of vigilante groups to protect the party.
In September last year, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the NDC’s General Secretary, defended the fresh emergence of vigilante groups within the party. According to him, the emergence of groups like Hawks is "an appropriate natural response" to the failure of the Akufo-Addo government to rein in its party vigilante groups.
Shortly after the violence that characterised the Talensi by-election in 2015, former Interior Minister under forrmer President Mahama, Mr Mark Owen Woyongo was quick to described the incident as a case of “violence begets violence.”
According to him, “Violence begets violence. Azoka boys will not behave violently if they were not provoked.The other side also brought in some people…the Invincible Forces and then the Bolga Boys, so violence begets violence.
“What I mean is that if you are a peace lover and someone comes to attack you, definitely you have to protect yourself”, Mr Woyongo was reported as saying on a Kumasi-based radio station, Ultimate Radio.
Chairman Wontumi therefore noted that former President Mahama knew very well the atrocities that took place in Talensi during the last by-election but cast a blind on it and went along his usual business.
”Mahama shouldn’t pretend the monster he created in the NDC thugs when he was president have left their body and soul. They still live with it and this forced them to cause trouble a La Bawaleshie during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.
He commended the police and their colleagues from the SWAT division for aiding to bring peace and harmony in the constituency
Speaking on last Thursday’s violence at La Bawaleshie during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election, former President Mahama told a gethering at the Volta region that the NDC can do worse, warning the governing NPP that the opposition party will meet it boot for boot in 2020.
Aside the Chairman Wontumi who has responded to the comment by the former President, the Chairman of the National Peace Council Professor Emmanuel Asante has also lashed out at former president John Mahama indicating that his utterances smacked of violence.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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