‘Operation Eagle Eye’ illegal, recipe for chaos — Volta NDC chairman
The Volta regional chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr John Kwadzo Gyapong, has described as ‘illegal’ the decision by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to adopt a monitoring strategy to prevent Ghanaian registered voters residing in Togo from participating in the upcoming elections.
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According to Mr Gyapong, the opposition NPP was embarking on ‘a risky mission’ that could turn bloody if legitimate Ghanaian voters residing in Togo were prevented from crossing the border to exercise their constitutional rights.
Mr Gyapong on various campaign platforms at Have, Brewaniase, and Dodo Amanfrom during the tour of the Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah, to the region, had indicated that the Volta regional branch of the NPP had no mandate to deploy persons to man the Ghana-Togo border with the excuse of restricting the movement of Togolese nationals.
According to him, the press conference by the NPP recently only exhibited acts of ‘arrogance and ignorance’ by announcing an illegal monitoring strategy.
Breach of rule of law
The NPP ‘Operation Eagle Eye,’ he said, would usurp the powers of the security agencies and breach the rule of law.
The regional chairman of the NPP, Mr Peter Amewu, announced Operation Eagle Eye last Tuesday as a way to stop any mobilisation of Togolese nationals into the country to vote for freebies as that amounted to “electoral criminality” which he accused the NDC of being main perpetrators during elections.
Mr Amewu had explained that with ‘Operation Eagle Eye’ only genuine Ghanaians residing in Togo would be allowed to exercise their constitutional right and franchise while any Togolese would be embarrassed legally without physical attacks.
Risky mission
However, Mr Gyapong said ‘any person who takes the law into his hands to curtail movements of people perceived to be Togolese at the border would be doing that at his or her own peril because the people would resist any form of oppression’, he cautioned.
‘It is the NPP that says they believe in the rule of law, so why are they taking the law into their own hands”, he quizzed.
NPP’s Accusation Against Asiedu Nketia
Mr Amewu had accused the NDC General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, of asking Togolese to vote in the election but Mr Gyapong explained that Mr Asiedu Nketia only announced that the party was going to launch its branch in Togo and campaign for their Ghanaian supporters in Togo to come home and vote just like registered voters in other parts of the world were encouraged to do so.
“General Mosquito has never asked Togolese to come and vote and we will not do that because we are law abiding,” he said.
Mr Gyapong said there was nothing wrong in inviting legitimate voters to come home and vote and added that “we are using the biometric system and if you are not a valid voter you can’t vote. Moreover, the parties have their agents at the polling stations to check illegalities so why go man the borders?”
All NPP attempts to disenfranchise Some Voltarians Failed
The NPP, he said, had always wanted a way to disenfranchise some people in the Volta Region but had always failed in their attempts.
‘They dragged 3,376 people in the region to court as Togolese whose names should be expunged from the voters register but the court exonerated 3,190. Even though some names were deleted, they were people who did not get the information early and did not go to court to defend themselves’.
The chief of staff and his entourage were on a campaign to garner votes for the President and parliamentary candidates.