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General News of Thursday, 13 April 2017

Source: peacefmonline.com

I'll tell Akufo-Addo my mind; this thuggery must stop! - Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama play videoFormer President John Dramani Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has descended heavily on the Nana Akufo-Addo administration for the recent acts of "thuggery" the current administration unleashed on members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in their bid to "retrieve" government property.

He prefers the Akufo-Addo administration, finds a more "civilised" way of retrieving state assets, especially vehicles from former government officials; if indeed there are any such vehicles in their possession.

Meeting with former Ministers and Deputy Ministers of State, former appointees and Presidential staffers on Tuesday, March 28, 2017 in Accra, Mr Mahama stressed that he would "speak his mind" to President Akufo-Addo when he gets the opportunity to meet him sometime this month.

According to him, the thuggery and raiding of people's residences should not be encouraged because it leaves a sour taste in the mouth of well-meaning Ghanaians, aside setting a bad precedent for the country.

He believed should this trend continue, successive governments would find it difficult to restrain their party supporters.

"So, the government is telling me they can't find a more efficient manner of looking for vehicles than forming storm troops to raid people's houses. And I think that it's wrong. I'm going to have the opportunity to tell Nana Addo that I mean he should stop this," he said.

He revealed that the President has invited him and former Presidents John Agyekum Kufour and Jerry John Rawlings to a private meeting.

He promised to utilize the opportunity to table his concerns before the President.

"If I go to that meeting, I'm going to tell him that this cannot continue. This thuggery is not good for our country. And the point is we thought we had had a good transition but it sets examples that make it difficult in future when there's another transition for another government to be able to restrain party supporters. Because all this thuggery, removing people from offices, beating them and things is unfortunate and so we must say it in the strongest terms", he stressed.

Watch video of the meeting below: