Chairman Wontumi has no right to stop former President Mahama — NDC

The National Democratic Congress in the Ashanti Region has taken a strong exception to a threat issued by the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Bernard Antwi Boasiako, to stop former President John D. Mahama from visiting any secondary school in the region.

It said that threat if carried out would amount to a breach of freedom of movement and speech enshrined in the Constitution and an attack on democracy, and that it must be condemned by all.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NDC, Mr Matthew K. Njourkone, said Chairman Wontumi “has no right to stop former President Mahama from entering any school in the Ashanti Region.”

He said the NDC had taken very serious note of the threat by Chairman Wontumi, and called on the security forces to intensify measures necessary to guarantee the free and legitimate movement of every person in the country, including Mr Mahama.

According to him, even though the former president had not visited any SHS and had also not given any indication to do so during his tour of the Ashanti Region, “Wontumi can never stop him if the former president decides to.”

He said it was about time “we unify in our resolve as peace-loving Ghanaians to send one clear and strong message to Wontumi that his threats have reached intolerable limits and can no more be accepted”, adding that such threats had no place in a democratic dispensation.

As a party, he said, the NDC would never be intimidated by the threats of Wontumi.

"Let every Ghanaian know that much as we respect the capability of the state security to contain him, if there is any failure to prevent him from doing anything untoward by the relevant state institutions, we will meet him with equal measure."

Mr Njourkone explained that the welfare of the SHS students was the concern of all and no one could prevent anybody from visiting them.

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