RAP Vows To Expose NPP

A pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) pressure group, Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP), has vowed it would embarked on series of publications to provide information on the specific polling stations to alert innocent voters, whose votes the petitioners in the dismissed election petition wanted annulled. The group at a press conference last Wednesday to launch an awareness creation movement named �Citizen�s Awareness Campaign� to kick-start its activities said, �all those whose votes would have been affected and whose right to vote would have been taken away from them need to know, so they can advise themselves accordingly� for the impending elections. This, the group claimed �those whose votes the NPP petitioners sought to annul reserve the right to take steps to ensure that their rights are respected in future�. The �Citizen�s Awareness Campaign�, which is expected to begin operation somewhere next week, according to the Coordinator, Mr. Daniel Mantey, �will make it possible for all persons registered in the over eleven thousand polling stations to know that their right to vote was almost stifled, but for the intervention of the Supreme Court�. Giving the indication to a group of journalists present at the conference, Mr. Mantey said, �starting from next week Wednesday, October 7, 2013, we shall cause to be published in various newspapers and media outlets, all the eleven thousand polling stations as well as the names of all registered voters in the polling stations, where the petitioners sought annulments of the valid votes cast by Ghanaians.� Aside publishing in the media, the group is planning to hold public forum, to provide frank discussions to people in order to deepen public awareness and understanding of the issues and the stance of the group to Ghanaian populace. The group also quoted its webtsite page as www.rapghana.com .org and facebook fun page www.facebook.com/RAPGHANA as where their information would be published for daily updates. This according to RAP they believed that Ghanaians will follow the exercise so as to �appreciate the enormity of the damage the NPP would have caused this nation had the Supreme Court not protected innocent voters from their elaborately implausible scheme�. �We would also like to call on Ghanaians to embrace the culture of holding public office holders and those who seek public office accountable�. They emphasized that �the era where politicians considered themselves untouchable and acted with impunity and total disregard for the rights and sensibilities of citizens, must come to an end�. �We must resolve as a people never to allow politicians driven by parochial motives hold all of us to ransom and keep all of us under the yoke of fear that engulf this nation over the last eight months�, the group cautioned. RAP noted, �Never again must we allow politicians to force the free-spirited Ghanaian to desert our streets for fear of violence as was the case on August 29 this year�. They pointed out that �these resolutions will only remain resolutions if we as citizens do not punish politicians who indulge in such conduct�, adding that RAP �sees Citizen�s Awareness Campaign� as a modest contribution towards creating the needed awareness that will empower us all to keep politicians in check so they do not take us for granted�.