The Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Yohane Amarh Ashitey, is appealing to Ghana’s moral society, and the opposition party, to impress on former President John Mahama, to reverse a wild allegation that he recently made against President Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
In a statement released on social media,. Yohane Amarh Ashitey called on the National Peace Council (NPC) and also the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to call the former President to recant the claim that president Akufo-Addo has put in motion, a plot to rig the 2024 election for the NPP.
“The 2024 election is for all Ghanaians to deliver, and so where you have behaviours that threaten to mar it, it is proper to use every available avenue to try to address it. This is why I call on his party, the NDC and our country’s moral society to call former president John Mahama to order,” the MCE wrote.
Specifically, he threw the challenge to, “the Peace Council, and the former president’s party to urge the former President to apologize for the claim that president Akufo-Addo is nursing a plot to rig the 2024 elections, as the allegation sows seeds of belligerence in the minds of his followers which is not healthy for the upcoming election.”
The call comes a week after an earlier appeal by the MCE to the former President to apologize for the wild claim.
However, since he made the appeal, Mr. Mahama has ignored him, together with others who have similarly expressed disappointment in the former President’s allegation.
Earlier in the month, former President John Mahama had told a KNUST chapter of the NDC’s Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) that president Akufo-Addo is plotting to rig the 2024 elections.
According to Mr. Mahama, the president’s plot entails he using the Jean Mensah led Electoral Commission to steal the vote in the next election. The allegation was made without a single shred of evidence.
For many people, the former President’s allegation is unfortunate given that such wild allegations potentiate chaos for the 2024 elections.
Hon. Yohane Amarh Ashitey was the first to appeal to the former president to apologize for the allegation. Subsequently, the NPP’s Chairman for the Tema East constituency, Nene Ofoe Teychu Agbadiagba lV, called on the government to take a more drastic action, i.e. sue Mr. Mahama for defamation and also for acts that can breach public peace.
However, since the appeal, Mr. Mahama has not delivered the apology or expressed any remorse over the wild allegation.
“I still insist that a peaceful recant of his allegation is the best way to deal with the issue rather than dragging His Excellency the former President to court. And so, since he has not given the apology, I will like to call on our moral society to appeal to him to do the needful,” Hon. Yohane Amarh Ashitey wrote.