It was a straight forward case. A group of people identified as followers of the National Democratic Congress on a keep fit march in Accra last Sunday pelted the Nima residence of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party with stones, broken bottles and other missiles.
The crowd, numbering between 100,000 and 300,000 according estimates given by the organizers, attempted to break through the security cordon at the gate to get unto the compound of the opposition leader, who was out of town, campaigning in the Brong Ahafo Region.
Strangely, the Police tried rather hard and over-stretched their wits by presenting a scenario that, four days on, is resonating with a tinge of sadness about the reliability of this nation’s leading peace officers.
The normal swagger of Supt. Cephas Arthur Director of the Police Public Relations Directorate was missing when the police rather tried too hard to paint an equalization scenario involving the nation’s two leading political parties, at each other’s throat.
According to Supt. Arthur, the official spokesperson for the police, supporters of the NDC and the NPP clashed near the residence of Nana Akufo-Addo at Nima.
The Police then went ahead to portray a picture of a trigger-happy private guards at Nana Addo’s residence firing indiscriminately, at a time vigilante groups are banned from operating within political parties.
Obviously, taking a cue from the jumbled police presentation of what happened, NDC officials are emboldened and are making very wild claims.
Unfortunately for Ghanaians, President John Dramani Mahama himself is leading from the front in the threat game.
One report quoted head of state as telling the marchers that nobody could force power-sharing on him (Mr. President). The President joined the marchers at Kawukudi Junction and addressed them.
It is difficult to rationalize where the President was coming from. Nobody has claimed to be head of state of this Republic, other than Mr. John Dramani Mahama.
How the leader of this nation could allude to someone holding himself as President, tells a lot about the paranoid stance of the government and the security services, especially.
Two weeks ago, the Ashanti Regional Minister Alaxender Ackon, claimed that he had received a report of men on bicycles, dropping what looked like bombs in Kumasi. The police have still not officially published their findings.
But The Chronicle can report authoritatively that the bomb scare was a hoax. In our view, it is all part of the game-plan to create insecurity, in order for the government to be declared a state of emergency.
We are of the view too that, the banter over the invasion on Nana Akufo-Addo’s residence is part of a gargantuan plan to intimidate followers of the largest opposition party with the aim of cowing them into submission, in the run-up to the polls.
Thankfully, the object of the attack at Nima, appears unruffled. Read the lips of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the issue: “Let the President and his army of propaganda warriors be assured that they would not succeed in their intimidation and deliberate propaganda mongering against the NPP and I.
“We shall continue to believe in Ghana. We will muster the needed courage to defend democratic Ghana and continue in our peaceful quest to win power in 2016 to bring back hope and opportunities to the people of Ghana irrespective of their politics, creed, ethnicity, region, religion, age, gender or social status,” said the leader of the opposition.
In other words, Nana Akufo-Addo and followers of the NPP cannot be cowed into submission and thus stop working for a change in the mal-administration answering for government.
The Chronicle is inspired by the confidence oozing in the camp of the leading opposition party.
What this means is that Ghanaians could rest assured that a group of people dedicated to the cause of this country is ready to relieve the silent majority of the extreme hardship visited on all of us by an administration that has clearly lost its way.
It is the hope of this paper that the Police administration and its current officers would be minded to bring honour to the uniform. It is unfortunate. But not many Ghanaians would want to buy second hand cars from Mr. John Kudalor and his charges at the Police Headquarters in Accra.
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