The opposition NPP has formally petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) over allegations of incidents of violence that it says marred the Akwatia by-election.
Speaking on Joy News a day after the hotly contested poll, the NPP’s Director of Communications, Richard Ahiagbah, said the party had expected victory but was forced to confront a campaign environment fraught with intimidation, inflammatory rhetoric, and lawlessness.
“It was not the result we anticipated, the efforts we put in. We thought that would have won that election. As it is, a lot of things have happened, some of which I’m sure we’ll discuss, and you have seen our petition to the IGP in the nature of the violence that happened there.
“So a lot of factors played a role in our loss, but we have embraced the result, and we demand that certain actions be taken,” Mr Ahiagbah said.
Pressed by host Evans Mensah to spell out the party’s main concerns, he pointed to the tenor of the campaign itself, which he argued created fertile ground for disorder.
“Yeah, I mean, practically, you saw the campaign itself was recourse, some very inflammatory languages were used. If you talk about what the national chairman of the NDC, Sofo Azorka, came there in a rather coded way, talking about, how is it that the power belongs to the NDC, technically, and so therefore are able to do whatever it is, including being able to seize and reallocate the [mining] concessions belonging to our candidate,” he said.
Mr Ahiagbah maintained that such rhetoric had dangerous implications in a constituency already grappling with illegal mining.
“That’s a way of, you know, appealing to galamseyers, which we know that a lot of galamsey goes on in Akwatia.
“The effort is to streamline it, make sure it’s legal, but then, in its present form, it’s injurious to all of us in our society.
“But then they found a way to leverage that. I think the National Organiser was in the constituency in a rather uncharacteristic manner, calling on the President to seize all operations,” he stated.
The NPP’s petition to the IGP, Mr Ahiagbah stressed, is not only about redress but also about ensuring that political contests do not descend into cycles of impunity.
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