President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has come under fire from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for voicing his displeasure that his main opponent, John Mahama of the NDC, declined to congratulate him on winning the 2020 general elections.
In a speech prior to the fifth Constitution Day celebration, the President emphasized the importance of peace and unity and revealed that he had not yet received a congrats from the NDC flagbearer.
Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the National Chairman of the NDC, defended John Mahama’s reluctance to congratulate President Akufo-Addo, claiming that the president was inciting violence to seize power, which is why Mahama was appointed.
He continued by saying that the president has shown the victims’ bereaved family not a single gesture of sympathy in the three years since the deaths of about eight people in the 2020 election.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Nana Akufo-Addo should rather be implementing the recommendation of inquiry which he himself set up that interrogated the actors and victims of the Ayawaso Wuogon by-election violence; and not be worried over congratulation from our flagbearer. We will not congratulate anybody who murdered Ghanaians to secure power, we will not.”
He continued by saying that rather than just offering an apology, President Nana Akufo-Addo needs to make sure that Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL) have representation in Parliament again after being denied the right to vote in 2020.
Asiedu Nketiah went on to accuse Akufo-Addo of not being committed to ending violence related to elections.
“He must be called out to abandon his partisan commitment, which he has expressed publicly, that he’ll do whatever is in his power during the remaining time in office to hand over power to the NPP successor. He wants to choose this successor, not the people of Ghana in whom the sovereignty of Ghana resides; we are saying no way.”