The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has strongly condemned recent comments by the acting chairman of the New Patriotic Party Freddie Blay who reportedly justified recent vandalism by supporters of the NPP.
Freddie Blay argued in a media interview that the recent seizures of state officers by supporters were meant to protect the state institutions and prevent looting of state resources.
But in an interview with Citi News, Policy Advisor of the PPP Kofi Asamoah Siaw condemned the acting Chairman’s comment.
“It’s an unfortunate statement from him; it has no locus as far as the administration of the country is concerned. Ghana is not administered by party foot soldiers or members of a political party that has won an election. President Akufo-Addo is president of the Republic of Ghana not president of NPP. So members who are part of his party cannot arrogate to themselves the right or the duty and responsibility to want to attempt to protect state resources, we shouldn’t encourage that,” he argued.
Mr. Blay in the interview complained that “in some cases, particularly places like the harbour, DVLA, Peduase Lodge, polling stations [sic] and so forth, in some cases the people had to go there to protect state property to ensure that looting stops.”
He added “I’ve been told that in some public offices and so forth, all of a sudden those who were working there have refused to come to work, not because they are being intimidated or being chased out, but they themselves have suspected that because of how they came there, or purely based on they being members of the party then in power, some people will chase them out and they’ve left those public places to the wind, to the weather and people have gone there to protect it. It’s not a question of condemnation, I’ve told you that in some instances I won’t condemn if they were there to protect property.”
Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has asked Ghanaians to hold President Nana Akufo-Addo responsible for any mayhem which may arise as a result of the attacks on their members.
According to the party, the current President has failed to stop members of the NPP from attacking NDC members and state properties.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said the President was sitting by as alleged members of the NPP instigated disturbances.
“When you are the Commander in Chief and you allow gangsters to be humiliating state security officers, where are we going to?” Mr. Asiedu Nketia questioned. “… I am not surprised at all because throughout the campaign I kept warning that we all know the best gauge of anybody’s conduct in future is his conduct in the past and we know the conduct of the various presidential candidates, including Nana Addo, and his record of encouraging conduct.”
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
