Ablekuma North: Minority to withdraw support in Parliament if NDC thugs are not called to order

The Minority in Parliament has accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of resorting to violence to prevent the Electoral Commission (EC) from declaring the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, Honorable Akua Afriyie, as the winner in the Ablekuma North constituency.

Jerry Ahmed Shaib, the Member of Parliament for Weija-Gbawe, made this assertion during a press conference held at the Parliament House in Accra on Monday, January 20.

He stated, “NDC knows that it has lost the parliamentary elections and has therefore resorted to violence with the sole aim of preventing the electoral commission from declaring the NPP candidate Honorable Akua Afriyie as the winner.”

Ahmed Shaib emphasized the NPP’s acceptance of some parliamentary results, even when they lost by narrow margins.

He remarked, “It must be emphasized that NPP lost about 60 parliamentary seats with margins below 1000 votes, yet it conceded graciously. A classic case is done, Aowin, where we lost by a controversial margin of 93 votes, we conceded graciously and today, the NDC candidate for Aowin is in Parliament as a Member of Parliament for Aowin.”

He called on President John Dramani Mahama to take immediate action to address the alleged violence.

Shaib stated, “We call on you to take immediate steps, to call your party thugs to order. You cannot pretend to be unaware, to be unaware of all this lawlessness and violence in this country.”

He also appealed to the Ghana Police Service and the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, to enforce law and order.

“We call on you and your entire election Security Task Force to rise up to this occasion and enforce law and order without hesitation. The EC officials and all the stakeholders in this electoral process must be protected,” said the MP.

He warned that the Minority would consider lawful protests and withdraw cooperation in Parliament if the situation is not addressed.

Ahmed Shaib stressed, “We hereby serve notice that should the president, who is the commander in chief, fail to take steps to protect the ordinary citizens, we the minority caucus shall protest through lawful means and withdraw cooperation in Parliament.”

The Ablekuma North parliamentary election has been marred by disputes and allegations of irregularities.

Supporters of the NDC have been accused of causing chaos and disrupting the re-collation exercise of the election results.

The Electoral Commission has called for the arrest of those responsible for the disruptions at their old office last week.