Akufo-Addo must be ashamed of election 2020 brutalities – Ablakwa

Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, says President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ought to be blamed for his lack of responsibility leading towards the unwarranted levels of violence recorded during the 2020 general elections.

The MP maintains that the failure of the President to ensure that the various security agencies handled events during the polls in a more appropriate manner must be something the President must be ashamed of.

Mr. Ablakwa’s comment comes on the back of a petition he and another colleague legislator – Ellembelle MP, Emmanuel Kofi Buah, have presented to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to probe the violence and the killings.

“The buck stops on the leadership. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, the President himself, must be embarrassed that this happened under his watch. He is the Chair of the National Security Council,” Mr. Ablakwa said on Eyewitness News.

Many MPs on the minority side of Parliament have taken steps through the [private member’s motion] seeking a full-scale probe into acts of violence that occurred during the 2020 polls.

They want the scope of the probe to factor in inappropriate interferences by state security in the elections and violence against citizens, leading to the loss of lives insisting that the IGP, and other security agencies reneged on a promise to Parliament and Ghanaians to protect lives.

The latest is the petition by Messrs Ablakwa and Armah Buah invoking CHRAJ’s legal mandate to investigate the conduct of security officers in the election.

The petition from the MPs is lodged against the Ministers for Interior and Defence, the Inspector General of Police, and the Chief of Defence staff.

“That is why in our complaints, we have not left out the politicians because they are the beneficiaries of these shenanigans when they occur. So the Minister of Defence has been cited in this petition. The Minister of Interior because they are in charge and serve on the National Security Council. So we are not stopping at the level of the IGP or Chief of Defense Staff, although they have been cited”, Mr. Ablakwa added.