The Executive Director of Alliance for Christian Advocacy Africa, Rev Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong has expressed worry over the inaction in dealing with electoral violence and associated deaths in the country. The former General Secretary of the Christian Council said the hands of the citizenry are bloody, considering the violence that mars every election.
Rev Opuni-Frimpong expressed these concerns during an interview on Citi FM in Accra. He called for prompt investigations and prosecution of those responsible for the 2020 election violence, which resulted in the loss of eight lives. He questioned why the country’s leaders seemed unconcerned about electoral violence and deaths, emphasizing the need for national introspection regarding the bloodshed.
Rev Opuni-Frimpong highlighted that electoral violence and deaths have been recurrent issues in almost all elections and stressed the importance of keeping citizens informed about the progress of investigations and actions taken against the perpetrators.
“But again, the recent one is the eight that we recorded in 2020. For me, going into the 2024 election, if the government and the Ghana Police Service can give Ghanaians evidence that at least even if we have not come to completion of investigations, the process is ongoing and we know those people we are prosecuting, they will add to the peace process.
“We must find those people who killed the eight people and prosecute them, and if need be, even find compensation for those they have left behind,” he stated. He further asserted that there must also be a political will to tackle the issue head-on, guarding against indecent language that incites violence.
“The parties themselves, they have mature men and women in those parties who must, you know, behind the scenes, close door meetings, heal the wounds among themselves, and who must talk to their own people.
“We must have people in NPP who will just talk to people that this is not the NPP we want. We need people in NDC who are behind the scenes, even if they must come public and condemn their own,” he urged.
Rev Opuni-Frimpong continued, “It is very worrying that when their people come out, you can’t get a single person in the NPP going public that, ‘yes, you are part of us, but this comment is unacceptable’. You don’t get somebody from NDC either.”
Source: Adomonline
