Former National Security Advisor, Brigadier General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, says high rate of unemployment should be blamed for the recent illegal seizure of state properties and institutions by some perceived supporters of the New Patriotic Party.
“The underlining cause is that there are young men roaming the streets who have no jobs; have nothing to do. If they were busy, they’d not have the time to go and seize toilets,” he argued. Following the declaration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the winner of the December 7, 2016 presidential election, some alleged supporters of the NPP have been taking over the management of some public toilets.
Others have also been taking over some offices of the National Health Insurance, Youth Enterprise Agency and toll booths across the country. At least some six persons have been arrested in the BrongAhafo region while the NPP Vice Chairman of the Trobo constituency in Greater Accra region has also been arrested for leading some persons to seize a tool booth.
Speaking on 3FM on the issue of takeovers, Brig. Nunoo-Mensah condemned the acts which has become a cycle after every election year. He gave an instance where a public toilet he renovated in Winneba in the Central Region was taken away, noting the country is full of people who only want money but “do not want to sweat”. “If your party is in power, you are supposed to enhance the reputation of your party and not to be fooling around while we look on and do nothing about it.
“We have a new generation of people who for some reason (are abusing opportunities). The reasons are many, I may be part of that reason because we had rough lives we did not want our children in the modern generation to suffer so we pampered them,” he observed.
He said there is the need to enforce the laws of the land and the issue must be address as a political crime by the security, noting “there should be no pampering in enforcing the law; wrong is wrong. “If you seize toilets because your party is in power, the law must take its cause. Ghana is not a lawless country.
It is apolitical crime because the perpetrators are hiding under the guise of the NPP to perpetrate that and leadership must stop it immediately”.
Brig. Nunoo-Mensah also called for the empowerment of the Police by the current government to take what he calls courageous political actions to stop the activities of these miscreants. “Most of the our security Heads were appointed by the outgone government and are afraid to make any move to deal with those breaking the law because they will be perceived as elements of the previous government operatives,” he noted.
He grounded his argument on the fact that the Chief of Staff issued a directive to the IGP to deal with any such elements but that directive was met with an amount of protest by some NPP members. “If they could rebel against the Chief of Staff, how do you think they’d have reacted to the IGP without a backing from the Presidency?
How then do you think these party members would have reacted to the IGP for taking action without such backing from the Presidency?” he asked. He argued the Police has now been empowered hence have no excuse to allow the indiscipline continue.
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