The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has lamented what it calls the disturbing “loud silence” of the clergy, civil society groups and others relevant bodies, following the incidents of post-election violence after the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) election victory.
At a press conference on Wednesday addressed by the NDC Chairman, Kofi Portuphy, he recalled that a number of these groups hitherto “found it necessary to condemn every action of the previous NDC government” but have been silent in the past months.
He intimated that, these groups were basically betraying their standing as the public and moral conscience of Ghanaian society.
“All of a sudden, they have abandoned their neutral outlook. They have ceased being the conscience of the nation. We don’t want to believe the attitude of some clergy and civil society towards the disturbing developments in the political scene in Ghana is borne out of political or ethnic prejudice or is arousing out of hypocrisy and double standards,” he said.
Mr. Poturphy noted that, it was only in the wake of the recent fracas at a Kumasi Court, leading to the escape of 13 Delta Force members on trial, that a number of these groups rose up in condemnation.
The NDC Chairman questioned why they did not see it fit to condemn other egregious and lawless incidents prior to the mayhem at the Kumasi Court.
“Where was the Ghana Bar Association, CODEO, Peace Council when the NPP brought in mercenaries from South Africa to train these terrorist elements. Where was the Peace Council, when after the elections, these NPP elements attacked, burned down and a took over operations of toll booths at Tiafre in the Brong Ahafo Region and in Tema at the Motorway.”
“Where was the GBA when those goons beat up police officers and chased them out of their offices? Where was the peace council when NPP-sponsored goons murdered four NDC activists in different parts in the country in the Western, Central and Upper East Regions?” he alleged.
A responsible leader would have been outraged
President Nana Akufo-Addo has since spoken on the Delta Force incidents in Kumasi, where assured that the confusion was being addressed, and that he was committed working under the Rule of Law.
But the NDC rubbished the President’s response with Mr. Poturphy saying he “said practically nothing.”
According to him, President Akufo-Addo “shied away from expressing outrage or total condemnation, and chose rather cynically to pontificate on the rule of law.”
“When responsible world leaders express outrage at violence in their countries, it is not because they do not believe in the rule of law. It because violence should never be condoned under any circumstance,” Mr. Poturphy stressed.
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