Seek redress in courts over electoral disputes — Ogbojo assemblywoman
Ghanaians have been urged to seek redress from the judiciary and other designated state institutions with regard to any election related grievance instead of resorting to violence or vigilantism during the December 7 polls.
That, according to the Assembly member for the Ogbojo Electoral Area in the Adentan Municipality, Mrs Gladys Addo Osei, would help safeguard and consolidate the peace and political stability of the country.
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“There is the need for us to ensure, as Ghanaians, that we safeguard the peace that we have as the election approaches and in doing so, we need to seek redress from the right quarters and state institutions. When we disagree about something or feel something untoward is happening, we should not take the law into our own hands,” she said at a stakeholder meeting in Accra last Saturday.
Stakeholder meeting
The meeting was organised by the Maralitha Care Foundation (MCF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) established by Mrs Osei that focuses on empowering young ladies and community development, to engage relevant stakeholders on vigilantism and the need to rally support towards ensuring a peaceful election.
It brought together various stakeholders such as the NCCE, the National Peace Council (NPC), the Adentan branch of the Electoral Commission, the Ogbojo Police Command, opinion leaders and Zion House International Ministry, a civil society organisation (CSO)
Issues discussed at the meeting included the fundamental human rights of citizens and the role of the police and the NCCE in ensuring peace.
Mrs Osei said the country could descend into chaos should people decide to take the law into their own hands.
She, therefore, called on the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to ensure adequate sensitisation of citizens to vigilantism and its negative repercussions on the country’s development.
Peace Council
For his part, a Public Relations Officer of the NPC, Mr Kafui Nutsu, expressed the Council’s commitment towards ensuring peaceful elections.
To that end, he said the NPC was embarking on various sensitisation projects across the country in addition to advocacy campaigns that had been established by the council in all the 275 constituencies.
Mr Nutsu said a national monitoring committee had also been set up to ensure that the two major political parties were committed to the road map to peace and code of conduct that sought to end political vigilantism in Ghana ahead of Election 2020.
According to him, the council was also establishing committees to monitor and discourage hate speech on various radio and television stations across the country. - #GhanaVotes2020