NPP disappointed in post-poll violence

Supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who engage in lawlessness should not be spared by the police, a former legal advisor to ex-president John Agyekum Kufuor, Vicky Bright, has charged.

“The police should arrest anyone causing violent acts and breaking the law,” she told Prince Minkah on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Monday, December 12.

The comment by the NPP member comes in the wake of reported attacks by some supporters of the NPP on members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and vandalism of public property.

Some persons affiliated to the party took over the administration of the recently constructed interchange at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in the wake of the party’s victory in the 2016 polls. The supporters seized the keys to the offices for the staff and management of the €74million interchange on Saturday.

There were similar reports of NPP supporters arbitrarily taking over public installations across the country, reminiscent of scenes in the aftermath of the 2008 polls won by the NDC, which witnessed some of the triumphant party’s supporters take over the running of public toilets, toll booths, community centres, among other structures.

In Kumasi on Saturday December 10, few hours after Nana Akufo-Addo’s confirmation as winner of the 2016 election, some party faithful stormed some public toilets manned by staff of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), seized the keys to the facilities, assaulting some persons in the process.

The toll booths located at the Ashaiman end of the Accra-Tema motorway were seized and taken over by well-built men in the early hours of Monday, December 12.

“I don’t understand why people will get up and go and possess a toll booth and they will be allowed to go scot-free. The revenue is for government and not for people’s individual pockets, so you cannot deny the state of genuine revenue collection. I say that the police should do its job,” she added.

The private legal practitioner further condemned those acts, indicating her party is one which upholds the rule of law. She appealed to supporters and other individuals involved in the unruliness to behave in a civilised manner.

“Our president-elect has unequivocally condemned such acts, and to the extent that our supporters are behaving like that, we are disappointed. This is not a behaviour that anyone in leadership of the party condones,” she said.