The Ranking Member of the Committee on Defense and Interior, Mr. James Agalga, has admonished President Akufo-Addo to find space and address the nation on the insecurities in Bawku and Ashaiman.
According to Mr. Agalga, he was disappointed that the President, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, could not utter a word about these two incidents when he delivered the State of the Nation Address (SONA) last week Wednesday.
Mr. Agalga noted that for the mere fact that the Ashaiman incident preceded the SONA, the President should have commiserated with the bereaved family, and also apologised to the residents of Ashaiman for the abuse of their rights.
“…The President doubles as the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces. When he appeared before this House to deliver the message of SONA, he touched on a gamut of issues, including the security sector…
“As Commander-in-Chief, one would have expected that Mr. President would have told us the state of the security in our country before talking about procurement done under his watch ….he neglected to do so.
“The incident that occurred in Ashaiman preceded the delivery of SONA, but the President didn’t find space in the one and a half hour delivery to, at least, console the family of the bereaved,” Mr. Agalga said.
He made the comments when he was contributing to the debate on the SONA in Parliament yesterday.
It would be recalled that on Monday and Tuesday, 6th and 7th March, where scores of soldiers went berserk at Ashaiman Official Town, brutalised residents, motorists and commuters they came across on.
The actions of the soldiers were to avenge the alleged murder of their young colleague by some thugs at Official Town in the wee hours of Saturday, 4th March.
The soldier, who was reportedly carrying a laptop and was on his way to see his mother at that time on Saturday, was attacked and killed by some thugs.
Bawku, in the past month, has also recorded some conflicts that have affected lives and livelihoods in the Upper East Regional capital.
According to the West African Network for Peacebuilding, 23 people, including a 12-year-old, have been killed in the Bawku clashes between January 31 and February 10 this year.
Speaking yesterday, the Ranking Member, who is also the Member of Parliament for Builsa North, indicated that so many people had lost their lives to the insecurities in Bawku, and that should have been of concern to the President.
“Ghanaians expected that the President would have said a word about the age-old Bawku conflict.
“Mr. Speaker, that was unfortunate. The President simply did not live up to expectations as Commander-in-Chief. I will admonish him to find space and address the nation on Bawku and Ashaiman,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Committee on Defense and Interior, which is chaired by Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, has indicated that it would pay a visit to Ashaiman to commiserate with the family of the deceased, and also comfort the innocent residents of Ashaiman who were brutalised by soldiers.
