In advance of the by-election, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) ordered all police bodyguards of MPs to turn in their weapons to the closest police station in Assin North. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, the MP for South Dayi, has criticized the order.
On Monday, June 26, 2023, the IGP issued an order prohibiting them from carrying such rifles.
The instruction follows a crucial meeting between the Ghana Police Service leadership and representatives from the political parties and the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC).
Following the meeting, the IGP, who was in charge of the police force, gave the bodyguards instructions to deliver the weapons to the closest police station in the Assin North Constituency.
In response to the IGP’s directive, Dafeamekpor stated that the IGP lacked the authority to issue such a directive because it was unconstitutional.
Speaking to the press in Assin North, he stated that “Bodyguards attached to MPs are part of their conditions of service. The IGP has no power to vary the conditions of service of a sitting MP in the same way he has no power to vary the conditions of service of a superior court judge in this republic.
“So for him to issue a statement and say that Police bodyguards of MPs should surrender their weapons to the nearest Police Station is unlawful and unconstitutional.”
He alleged that the directive was an effort to intimidate and persecute MPs, and he demanded that the IGP immediately revoke it.
Today, Tuesday, June 27, 2023, candidates from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) have been presented to compete for the Assin North parliamentary seat.
Relatively, today, voters in the Central Region’s Assin North Constituency will choose a new member of parliament.
The by-election was scheduled for June by the Electoral Commission (EC).
27 after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate James Gyakye Quayson’s victory in the 2020 parliamentary election was declared invalid.
