Peace Pact: Are we at war? – Buaben Asamoa questions Peace Council
Peace Pact: Are we at war? – Buaben Asamoa questions Peace Council
Yaw Buaben Asamoa, Special advisor to independent presidential aspirant, Alan Kyerematen, has asked why the National Peace Council (NPC) is talking about signing peace pacts ahead of the 2024 general elections when the peace of Ghana is not threatened in any way.
Buaben Asamoa says that prior to the Peace Council announcement of signing a peace pact, the political discussions were dominated by the policies of the political parties.
Therefore, he wondered why the Councill would all of a sudden talk about signing peace pact as though there is going to be war.
The former lawmaker for Adenta faulted the approach of the Council toward this matter.
“Why are you going to sign a peace pact when there is no threat to the peace? Are we at war, are we fighting?” he said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, August 24.
He added “we were going on and then all of a sudden there is a call for peace pact, creating the impression that there is a threat. The way the Peace Council went about it was not the best.
“We have gone beyond this peace industry, they should evolve, they should adapt, we have seen transitions, we have had 8 elections, nobody is really now afraid of going out of power or using violence to stay in power.”
Meanwhile, the National Peace Council has said that there is a limit to which their powers can be exercised in relation to addressing electoral violence in Ghana.
The Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council (NPC) George Amoh admitted that the Council may not have lived up to expectations but they can’t be blamed for the violence that occurred in the 2020 elections.
“The expectations are too much, we do not have the capacity to meet all those demands of us,” he also said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, August 24.
He added, “We may not have lived up to expectations but we can’t be blamed for 2020 electoral violence.”
He further indicated that the Peace Council may have to engage in public education on its mandate because the expectations of them is hue.
“We may have to do pubic education on our mandate, we don’t have the power to do things peace ask us to do, asking us to make pronouncements on certain matters, the courts have that mandate,” he said.
George Amoh further described the conditions given by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) before they signed the peace pact are fair.
He says that the Council is assessing the condition to ascertain which lines they can implement and the ones to refer to the appropriate bodies to act on them.
“The conditions are fair to us, we just have to look at them and see which one we can do and which we can refer to,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, August 214.
The National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has enumerated some conditions that need to be fulfilled before the party will consider signing the Peace Pact being championed by the National Peace Council ahead of the December 7 elections.
Mr Nketia had said earlier that the party would not be part of any Peace Pact relating to the forthcoming national elections.
He contended that previous Peace Pacts that they were party to, did not yield the desired results.
Mr Nketia cited instances including the alleged killing of 8 members of the party by national security operatives in the 2020 elections, for which no one has been held accountable.
Speaking during a meeting with members of the National Peace Council at the party’s headquarters on August 20, Mr Nketia outlined the conditions as follows:
“1. Let us see the full implementation of the investigations of the incident that occurred at Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency during the by election.
2. We want to see initiation of prosecution in all the violence during the last election.
3. We want to see prosecution for the printing of ballot papers. We have not heard anything on it. We want to see action otherwise they will do it again.
4. The case of missing IT Equipment from the warehouse of the EC must be looked into. We believe they are not missing. Where are the equipment when the suspects were caught? Our confidence in the EC has been shaken. You need to put our hearts at rest that nothing untoward is happening with our IT systems. Look into it. Appointments to the EC too. We raised issues with that. We produced evidence that they were full of NPP people. They are still at the EC
5. We want the President to state openly that he will respect the outcome of the 2024 elections.
6. We want to see the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Chief Justice (CJ), Attorney-General (A-G) and National Security Coordinator sign the peace pact before we see and sign that document,” Mr Nketia requested.
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