By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Wednesday, August 25, 2015
Folks, the publication yesterday by the Daily Guide of a news report attributed to some so-called disappointed youth of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta Region turned my crank a lot, not because I found it to be impossible in our kind of political dispensation but because of its implications for our democracy. And those implications are huge.
In that report, the newspaper had it that those disappointed NDC youth had "finally confessed their ‘sins’, revealing how they recruited Togolese nationals to vote in Ghana’s 2012 and previous general elections." (See https://www.ghanaweb.com/…/NDC-boys-spill-beans-over-Togoles…)
It quoted elaborately admissions by Robert Tetteyfio Adjase, who said he was chairman of the group called "Disappointed NDC Youth" who had crossed over to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The Daily Guide's publication resonates with the so-called research done by a group engaged by the NPP to do a comparative analysis of voters registers of Ghana and Togo, based on which Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia concluded that over 76,000 names in Ghana's voters register are Togolese. Regarding the voters register as "critically flawed," the NPP is fighting tooth and nail that it be discarded and a new one compiled for Election 2016.
The Daily Guide's publication has only one aim: to tarnish the image of the NDC and boost the NPP's demand for a new voters register. Clear enough.
Using the "confessions" of Adjase and his group raises many issues that need immediate action by the authorities. What Adjase disclosed is a serious criminal offence that must be taken up, which is why I am out to ask whether the police have already gone for Adjase and his co-authors or perpetrators of what he himself boldly confessed to as an egregious electoral offence.
Serious action has to be taken for us to know more than Adjase and his group are owning up to. And we demand that they be thoroughly interrogated to reveal all others involved in their acts.
It is interesting to note that whatever it was that prompted Adjase and Co. to do what they are now claiming to have done in 2008 and 2012 will remain a major hindrance to us in our efforts to improve our democracy unless action is taken to stop it.
The human factor in a democracy is really crucial, which is why all eyes must be on anybody claiming to have perpetrated any act that endangers the electoral process. All the calls for reforming our electoral process, which are principally focused on technicalities, will not solve any problem unless and until the human factor is taken care of. Once Adjase and Co. have exposed themselves as wrongdoers in the general elections, they should be tackled.
Whatever might have motivated them to disclose their acts doesn't really matter to me. Clearly, once they claim to be disappointed (and disaffected) within their own political ranks, anything could push them to the point of placing the political noose around their own necks. If their intention was to "spill the beans" to taint the NDC and the Volta Region, particularly, it must be clear to them that they have already failed. Their so-called "confession" has boomeranged and will put them in trouble instead. Cutting off their noses to spite their faces in this manner has only one consequence: to invite the arm of the law to grab them. And they have succeeded in doing so.
I challenge the IGP to move fast on this score to have Adjase and his group arrested for interrogation and prosecution if their "confession" is established as true. Those of this type are to be dealt with stiffly, not let off the hook to continue frustrating efforts at improving our democracy. Who knows what they will do in the NPP to cause more problems for our democracy?
I shall return…
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