<<Print>>

The Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Otokunor says the party will not respond when the Justice Emile Short Commission of Inquiry invites them to help assist in investigations into the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence.

According to him, they do not trust the Commission because they (Commission) have been set up to ‘whitewash the President'.

Otokunor who was speaking in an interview on Citi Eyewitness news alleged that “the composition of the committee tells you they are coming to do a cover up for the president . . . we think the Commission that was set up was rather a defective one and problematic from the onset.”

“We cannot be committed to this commission because we know it is a Commission to come and whitewash the president . . . we do not support, and we are not going to give any cooperation whatsoever,” he added.

Background

Government on Thursday set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the violence which occurred during the by-election in the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency on January 31, 2019.

The three-member commission has Mr Justice Emile Short as Chairman, with Professor Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu and Mr Patrick K. Acheampong as members.

A statement signed by Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, indicated that "Mr. Ernest Kofi Abotsi, former Dean of the Faculty of Law of GIMPA and private legal practitioner, has been appointed as Secretary to the Commission".

Terms of reference

They include:

- To make a full, faithful and impartial enquiry into the circumstances of, and establish the facts leading to, the events and associated violence during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election;

- to identify any person responsible for or who has been involved in the events, the associated violence and injuries;

- to enquire into any matter which it considers incidental or reasonably related to the causes of the events and the associated violence and injuries;

- to submit within one month its report to the President, giving reasons for its findings and recommendations, including appropriate sanctions, if any.