The legislature for Ellembelle Constituency, Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, has called on the Defence Minister and the Military High Command to investigate the presence of armed military men in the Ellembelle district.
According to Mr Buah, there has been a deployment of armed military men in the district which is obstructing the ongoing voter registration exercise.
He said the incident had scared most of his constituents from coming out in their numbers to take part in the ongoing registration exercise.
He, however, indicated that the Defence Minister, Mr Dominic Nitiwul, has denied knowledge of it.
He is, therefore, calling on Mr Nitiwul and the Military High Command to investigate and take the necessary disciplinary action against the culprits, if, they indeed, went there unauthorised.
“There is a heavy deployment of military in my district, Ellembelle. I just arrived from there.
“I just spoke to the Defence Minister, he is not aware of why there should be military presence in Ellembelle District, and so I am calling on the Defense Minister and the Military High Command to investigate, with immediate effect, the presence of armed military men in the NDC stronghold in the Ellembelle District, and take the necessary disciplinary action, if the people, indeed, went there unauthorised or it was arranged by a political operative.”
Explaining why he was bemoaning the presence of the military personnel in the district, which is also his constituency, Mr Buah indicated that the Defence Minister had earlier on given reasons for the deployment of military in some parts of the country, and that reason does not hold in the Ellembelle District.
“As you may be aware, we were earlier told by the Defence Minister that the military was being deployed to the border areas so that foreigners will not enter the country to protect the country from Covid-19.
Ellembelle is not a border town, so by the defense Minister’s criteria, there is no reason why [the] military should be deployed to Ellembelle District.”
It would be recalled that just some few days to the commencement of the voter registration exercise, the Minority Caucus in Parliament complained of the presence of heavily armed men in the Volta Region, specifically Ketu South, which is believed to be one of the strongholds of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The caucus was of the view that these men had been deployed to the area to intimidate NDC members from taking part in the registration exercise, which will go a long way to affect the party’s vote in the 2020 elections.
However, Mr Dominic Nitiwul said the deployments were made as far back as March 30 to help the Immigration Service ensure compliance with the border restrictions.
He said the government was concerned about people coming into this country in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, hence, the need for protection.
“What we doing are to make the people of Ghana safe by blocking all the unapproved routes, and as long as our borders are closed, it is our duty, as a government, to ensure that Ghanaians are safe,” Mr Nitiwul said.
Mr Buah is, therefore, beseeching the two authorities involved to investigate the issue and deal with the culprits, because what is happening in the district is scary.
“It started off by a slow registration in these centers, and then yesterday, we had military with guns, and you should have seen women, pregnant women, poor farmers running away because these are Ghanaian citizens who are reluctantly, under very difficult circumstances, have been forced to take risk to register. Now they are exercising that right so that they can vote, and they are now witnessing the presence of Ghana Armed Forces soldiers with guns. It was a scene that any peace-loving Ghanaian should be worried about.”
The post Withdraw military men from my District -Ellembelle MP appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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