Nana Addo calls for Presidential Commission on police brutality

The 2016 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has called for the setting up of a Presidential Commission to investigate circumstances leading to Police brutalities against demonstrators who were calling for the compilation of a new voters register.

He said after years of dictatorship Ghanaians had come to accept multiparty democracy and would no longer tolerate acts aimed at cowing the citizens into submission.

"We are determined to continue down the path of democratic engagement and an open society where its citizens can go about their work peacefully. Brute force by the police against unarmed citizens exercising their constitutional rights should be a thing of the past," he stated.

Nana Akufo-Addo said no amount of intimidation was going to stop those asking for a new voters register from going about their peaceful advocacy to achieve their aim.

He said what happened was a great shame and a tragedy for Ghana, adding that “the democratic gains will be protected by the people and Ghana was neither going back to police nor a one-man rule.”

The presidential candidate said this in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region when he addressed regional and constituency executives of the party as well as the party's parliamentary candidates and losers on the first day of his 'Rise and Build' tour of the region. 

He was accompanied by Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Ms Otiko Afisa Djaba, the National Women’s Organiser; Miss Elizabeth Ohene and elders of the party.

Support Otumfuo's call
Nana Akufo-Addo called on Ghanaians to follow the example of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who asked for the voices of all Ghanaians to be heard on the matter of the voters register.

He said the reason why the NPP was asking for a new register was not because the party would gain any advantage but because it would strengthen the credibility of the electoral system and make the outcome of any electoral process easy for people to accept.

"It is the best way of consolidating and guaranteeing the peace of our country and the survival of our democracy, not because it will favour the NPP, but because it will favour our democracy," he emphasised.

Agric modernisation
Nana Akufo-Addo said when elected as the President in 2016 he would pursue the modernisation of agriculture to ensure all-year farming in the three regions in the north in order to eradicate poverty and also prevent people from migrating to the south to look for non-existing jobs.

He said the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA—a brainchild of the NPP) had become the saddest story in Ghana's history.

He said SADA, which was a vehicle set up to accelerate the development of the north, had become a vehicle for massive corruption, dissipation of public funds and mismanagement and gave an assurance that if voted into power, SADA would become a proper instrument for the development of the north.

Competition over, time to unite
A member of Nana Akufo-Addo's campaign team, Dr Konadu Apraku, said the time for competition within the party was over and it was time to rise, unite, build and win power together.