The National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Akamba says the party has reason to believe that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) will attempt to use vigilante groups to disrupt the coming December polls.
In an interview on Citi News, the opposition’s National Organizer justified the party’s flagbearer’s call for citizens to fiercely defend ballot boxes in order to avoid any form of disruptions on the day of elections.
“We have been on the grounds and we have seen the kind of things the vigilantes from the NPP will always do to frustrate members of the general public and so we have decided that the people in the communities protect ballot boxes… In many such occasions, you hear the EC say they haven’t seen anything.”
According to Mr. Akamba, the call is not a shift to violence but rather a call to vigilance and is necessary to ensure the transparency and sanctity of the December polls.
“We want to have a free and fair election devoid of intimidation. We are not going there with guns like the NPP vigilante will carry. We are just going there to be citizen police. We will defend and protect the ballot boxes, we will help the EC protect the boxes… if they don’t need it, we’ll employ ourselves,” he said.
“Even recently the president himself said he hasn’t seen that people were murdered or injured so I’m sure the laws agree that we should defend ourselves,” he added.
He further stressed that the NDC’s action will only complement that of security personnel deployed during the elections and that according to him, does not amount to any form of offence.
“We respect the police and their activities but we think we should go into self-protection…After voting, I will stay until everybody votes and counting and done before you see me leaving… We’re not in for violence,” Mr. Akamba said.
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I’m Deborah Aba Narkoah. I’m an avid reader, writer and public speaker.
