The National Peace Council should have first engaged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on peace tasks, not the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ningo Prampram lawmaker, Samuel Nartey George, has said.
In the view of Sam George, the NPP are the perpetrators of electoral violence, not the NDC.
“Peace Council should have started peace talks with NPP. Asiedu Nketia was even charitable with the Peace Council, if they had come to me I would have torn the peace document,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, August 24.
Sam George further said that the National Peace Council should be disbanded after they admitted that they had not lived up to expectations.
Sam George says if institutions fail, they are closed down, therefore the Peace Council which he said failed to do its job leading to the killing of 8 people in 2020, then should be disbanded.
“If the peace council cannot stop violence they are of no use, they should be disbanded. When institutions fail you disband them,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, August 24.
The National Peace Council (NC) has said that there is a limit to which their powers can be exercised in relation to addressing electoral violence in Ghana.
The Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council (NPC) George Amoh admitted that the Council may not have lived up to expectations but they can’t be blamed for the violence that occurred in the 2020 elections.
“The expectations are too much, we do not have the capacity to meet all those demands of us,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, August 24.
He added, “We may not have lived up to expectations but we can’t be blamed for 2020 electoral violence.”
He further indicated that the Peace Council may have to engage in public education on its mandate because the expectations of them is hue.
“We may have to do pubic education on our mandate, we don’t have the power to do things peace ask us to do, asking us to make pronouncements on certain matters, the courts have that mandate,” he said.
George Amoh further described the conditions given by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) before they signed the peace pact are fair.
He says that the Council is assessing the condition to ascertain which lines they can implement and the ones to refer to the appropriate bodies to act on them.
“The conditions are fair to us, we just have to look at them and see which one we can do and which we can refer to,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, August 214.
The National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has enumerated some conditions that need to be fulfilled before the party will consider signing the Peace Pact being championed by the National Peace Council ahead of the December 7 elections.
Mr Nketia had said earlier that the party would not be part of any Peace Pact relating to the forthcoming national elections.
He contended that previous Peace Pacts that they were party to, did not yield the desired results.
Mr Nketia cited instances including the alleged killing of 8 members of the party by national security operatives in the 2020 elections, for which no one has been held accountable.
Speaking during a meeting with members of the National Peace Council at the party’s headquarters on August 20, Mr Nketia outlined the conditions as follows:
“1. Let us see the full implementation of the investigations of the incident that occurred at Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency during the by election.
2. We want to see initiation of prosecution in all the violence during the last election.
3. We want to see prosecution for the printing of ballot papers. We have not heard anything on it. We want to see action otherwise they will do it again.
4. The case of missing IT Equipment from the warehouse of the EC must be looked into. We believe they are not missing. Where are the equipment when the suspects were caught? Our confidence in the EC has been shaken. You need to put our hearts at rest that nothing untoward is happening with our IT systems. Look into it. Appointments to the EC too. We raised issues with that. We produced evidence that they were full of NPP people. They are still at the EC
5. We want the President to state openly that he will respect the outcome of the 2024 elections.
6. We want to see the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Chief Justice (CJ), Attorney-General (A-G) and National Security Coordinator sign the peace pact before we see and sign that document,” Mr Nketia requested.
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