Former president John Dramani Mahama has said no amount of government sponsored propaganda and distraction will take away the stigma of the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election, as darkest day in the history of Ghana’s 4th Republican democracy.
According to him, the substance of the matter is the violence meted out to innocent Ghanaians by hoodlums of the ruling government, paraded initially as state security personnel.
The former president has come under fire from several quarters, particularly the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for meeting and showing footages of violence he alleged took place during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election on the 31st of January 2019 to the Diplomatic community.
He has been accused of misrepresenting a footage that was taken during the funeral of a police man, Lance Corporal Daniel Teiko for an event that took place during the funeral of the late Member of Parliament for the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency, Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko.
But the former president in a statement a while ago said substance of the matter is that there was violence on the day of the election and that it was sponsored by the state.
‘’The victims, injured on the day, did not take guns and shoot themselves. They were injured by powerful assault rifles given to partisan hoodlums for the purpose of intimidating Ghanaians who were peacefully exercising their franchise in a by-election. The meeting held by my office in conjunction with the NDC Party and the Minority in Parliament was to correct the false impression given to the diplomatic corps that NDC was the cause of the violence in Ayawaso West Wuogon’’ he said.
He further noted that no amount of propaganda from government can erase the shame the country was subjected to on that ‘bloody Thursday’.
He continued that ‘’in any case, this is not the first, and will not be the last time in our history that an opposition group is meeting with the diplomatic corps to explain or clarify its version or outlook on policy or events in our country. Government must own up to its responsibilities and ensure the prosecution of the criminal elements who it deployed in Ayawaso West Wuogon. It is those actions that paint the country black internationally, not those who expose the dastardly acts sanctioned by government and its appointees’’.
Source: BestNewsGH.com
