The news that macho men in President John Dramani Mahama’s convoy have terribly beaten up a man who made the ‘Yeresesamu’ gesture in the Ashanti Region, calls into question measures put in place to ensure law and order, before, during, and after the Presidential and Legislative elections on December 7, 2016.
When Inspector-General of Police Mr. John Kudalor openly declared that his outfit was going to disband all vigilante groups in all political parties, it was interpreted to mean that macho men would never be part of this year’s campaigns, and that incidents of ballot snatching, assault and battery that frightened citizens of this country anytime the vote was nearer, would be banished to the touch-line this year.
Apparently, the police capo’s warnings were not meant for the followers of the ruling National Democratic Congress. The assault at Fumso, apparently in the full glare of President Mahama and his top aides, leaves many ordinary Ghanaians in limbo about their safety, before, during, and after the elections.
The victim, 52-year-old Nana Akwasi Gyamera, said to be a native of Kuntenase in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region’s only offence, according to usually reliable Adom FM on-line, was to make the ‘Yeresesamu’ (We are for change) gesture, as the presidential convoy entered into town to a cacophony of the ‘JM Tuaso’ mantra.
The police claim to be investigating the matter. But the real investigation to be conducted is not that the poor man has been beaten up right under the nose of the President. The problem with the President and macho men is that it completely defeats the police capo’s resolve to disband vigilante groups in political parties.
It is beginning to look like once the ruling party and its presidential candidate is concerned, the police are powerless to act.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that serious infractions from the camp of the NDC are being reported. There have been several complaints in the past that came to nothing, because state power had apparently been misapplied to shield the perpetrators.
On the day of the vote in 2012, a New Patriotic Party polling booth official, a lawyer by profession, was beaten up when thugs descended on him at a polling booth at Abutia in the Ho West Constituency.
The middle-aged doctor had one of his eyes seriously damaged. Nearly four years after the assault, the perpetrators are still at large. That is not the only incident fuelling speculation that when it comes to protecting the citizenry, there is one law for NDC followers and another for the mass of the people.
In January 2009, immediately after deceased President John Evans Atta Mills had been decorated as Head of State of this Republic, a group of thugs descended on some followers of the defeated NPP at the Kokomba Yam Market at Agbobloshie in Accra. In the melee that ensued, three followers of the NPP were hacked to death.
Nearly eight years after the incident, no person has been punished for the murder of the victims. All these fuel the speculation that in the socio-politico evolution of this society, there is one law for the ordinary person of this country, and another for the followers of the ruling party.
In all these, the NDC want Ghanaians to swallow the propaganda creation of a President without blemish.
Read the statement from the Ashanti Regional branch of the party after the macho men attack at Fumso. “We run one of the most disciplined and decent campaigns in recent times. John Mahama represents peace. He has always said that he has united Ghana. He is not divisive. He is not diabolic. He loves peace and he has united Ghana. And everybody who follows John Mahama tries to emulate his behavior.”
Unfortunately, deeds have never been able to match words in the present era. Anybody who was in this country when Ghana hosted the 2008 African Cup of Nations competition would have witnessed what true national unity was all about.
Propaganda has not won many wars. Let us get real in this country.
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