Otumfuo Summons Nana Addo & John Mahama

The heightened political temperature in the run-up to next month�s presidential and parliamentary elections has compelled Otumfuo Osei Tutu Ababio II, and the National Peace Council (NPC), to summon President John Dramani Mahama, leader and presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, representing the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Convention People�s Party, and other presidential candidates to Kumasi to discuss matters of peace. The Ashanti King, popularly known in Kumasi as �King Solomon,� due to the astute manner he handles chieftaincy matters, has extended a similar invitation to former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor and the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, to participate in the meeting with the presidential candidates, which is slated for the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, today. Though both President John Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo, frontrunners of next month�s elections, have been preaching peace on their political platforms, pockets of violence are being reported from some of the constituencies, raising fears that the elections itself, would be marred with violence if nothing is done. Dr. Sakara, who has also joined the chorus calling for peace, however, thinks the elections would be free, based on certain factors. �You cannot have development when you don�t have peace. So, as for peace, we must never disturb the peace of this country. But, peace is contingent on justice. Where there is injustice, you will often find trouble, and that means people are not law-abiding where the rule of law does not exist; where somebody wants to have more than their fair share at the expense of another. Those are the things that cause the disturbance of the peace,� he stated, when addressing the congregation of the International Charismatic Church in Accra on Sunday to thank God for his continued blessings to him ahead of the December elections. His conditional statement appears to have found favour with former President Rawlings, who is warning politicians contesting the December elections, not to corrupt the electoral system which could lead to electoral violence. Mr. Rawlings, who is also on a peace mission across the country, also advised parents when he visited Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region recently, to warn their children to stay away from violence during and after the elections. Today�s peace meeting, which would also be attended by the youth wings of the various political parties, would be presided over by Otumfuor himself, and would start at 10 a.m.