Brong Ahafo under military siege

Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, New Patriotic Party MP for Sunyani East, on Monday deplored the deployment of armed soldiers all over the Brong Ahafo Region. "With only a few days to go for the elections, the situation makes it as if the region is under a military siege," he said.

He has therefore called on President Jerry John Rawlings and the Ministers of the Interior and Defence to explain the reasons behind the situation. Mr Mensah expressed the concern in a statement issued to the press in Sunyani. "We in Brong Ahafo Region deserve a clear explanation and justification in order to be convinced that the deployment of soldiers at many points is not a measure of intimidation or even a prelude to a military coup." The statement stated: "we need a justification from President Rawlings, commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ministers of Defence and Interior and Mr Joe Agyepong, the Regional Police Commander and head of the Regional Security Council".

It said that on Tuesday, the NPP obtained a police permit to hold a rally at Kukuom in the Asunafo South constituency, whilst the NDC did not. Despite a clarification of the situation by the police, the statement added, the incumbent NDC MP, Mr Francis Adu Poku, kept on patrolling the venue of the NPP rally with some youth, ostensibly to disrupt the event.

It said when a report was made to the police, the MP came there and physically assaulted the local NPP chairman, Mr Anthony Badu, and his vice in the presence of the police. Instead of charging the MP with assault, the police took a complaint from him and proceeded to bring in reinforcement as if Kukuom was in a state of chaos.

The statement said that whilst the rally was in progress, a contingent of soldiers arrived there, making the crowd begin to scatter, adding: "the situation showed a sad state of relationship between the electorate and the army who are supposed to protect them". "Who called the large police contingent and the military reinforcement and for what reason?" the statement asked. The statement said that, earlier, Mr Adu Poku had threatened to get NDC activists who had defected to the NPP arrested.

The following day, they were really arrested and locked up by the police at Kukuom. The statement said the police failed to explain how worse the security situation in the area was to warrant the support of the armed forces. The statement asked if it is now a fashion in the region that military force is the first line of resort in dealing with every problem of law and order.

It added that on Sunday morning, six armed soldiers arrived at the family house of the late Professor Philip Kofi Amoah, NPP parliamentary candidate for Asutifi South at Achirensua where his relatives, party members and sympathisers had gathered to mourn him.

The statement said that the armed soldiers stayed at the funeral grounds for hours with their intimidating presence and guns. There were no policemen present and there had also not been any incidence that constituted a breach of the peace, the statement added. The statement queried: "So who sent them there and for what reason?" Meanwhile, three other NPP parliamentary candidates, Mr Paul Okoh, Nana G.W. Amponsah and Mr Joe Danquah of Asutifi North, Asunafo South and Wenchi West constituencies, respectively, have corroborated Mr Mensah's concern.

They told the GNA in Sunyani that the military have been intimidating, brutalising and molesting some members of the NPP in their constituencies. They alleged that some military personnel have been campaigning in towns and villages for the NDC with the warning that if they fail to vote for the NDC, they would be arrested and beaten after the elections.