Voters Registration: Military Deployment Only Displays Tribal Bigotry, Divisiveness – Sammy Gyamfi Claims

National Communications Officer for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi has lamented what he calls a lack of respect for citizenship rights in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

According to a Facebook message shared on the official page of the NDC communicator on August 1, 2020, Sammy Gyamfi alleges that the deployment of military personnel at some registration centres in the country demonstrates ‘tribal bigotry and divisiveness’.

Mr Gyamfi via the post claimed; “This government’s [New Patriotic Party’s] hatred for Voltarians and other non-Akans is shameful and must stop now. We are all Ghanaians. Nobody is more Ghanaian or less Ghanaian than the other. And, the citizenship rights of all Ghanaians must be respected irrespective of their ethnicity or tribe.”

He added; “Never in the history of Ghana, have we seen this obscene level of state-sponsored tribal bigotry and divisiveness like we are witnessing under the watch of President Akufo Addo today, as captured in the attached videos.”

Per a video shared by Sammy Gyamfi beneath his post, some residents in Banda-Ahenkro are seen rebuking the presence of military personnel deployed to their area amid the ongoing voters registration exercise across the country ahead of the December 7 polls.

A middle-aged man in the video, who is seen speaking in the Twi dialect told journalists; “We the Akan people have long been marrying Voltarian’s and they have been marrying us too but I just want to know why the soldiers in Ghana are coming here to monitor a voter registration exercise. It’s just plain intimidation and so the government of Ghana, especially Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo whatever that you’re looking for in the town of Banda-Ahenkro, you will surely get it. Nobody should touch anybody in this town because that type of intimidation will not work here”.