The Ashanti Regional branch of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed worry over the alleged bussing of Senior High School students by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to their political rally dubbed Youth Connect in Kumasi.
At a press conference in Kumasi, Augustus Andrews Nana Kwasi and Mr. Baah Achamfuor, the Ashanti Regional Chairman and Deputy Regional Secretary respectively, criticised unlawful bussing of students from various Senior High Schools to the Youth Connect programme.
The NDC believes that the act was meant to create a crowd effect to shore up Bawumia’s sinking popularity in his own political stronghold.
According to the Ashanti Regional NDC, they find the development very worrying because it shows the desperate lengths the NPP is prepared to go just to create an illusion of popularity.
They indicated that, the laws of Ghana do not allow partisan politics in the Senior High Schools and for the Headmasters of these institutions to have released SHS students, some of whom are minors to participate in political activities at the time they are supposed to be in school studying, indicates how low they are prepared to go to please their NPP collaborators.
The NDC said it is even shocking that these developments happened right under the nose of the Minister for Education, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum, who was engaged by President Akufo-Addo to restore sanity in our educational system.
According to the NDC, the incident raises a fundamental ethical concern regarding the safety of students and the conduciveness of the educational environment, saying it is a shame that Dr. Yaw Adutwum who was brought in to introduce international best practices in our education sector is overseeing the destruction of Senior High Schools with unbridled partisan politicization.
As a result, the NDC has called on parents to join forces with them to demand answers from CHASS and GES for exposing their wards to this needless political danger when school is supposed to be in session.
Mr Augustus Andrews alleged that Dr. Bawumia’s convoy was booed and jeered at the Kejetia Central Market the very same place where Dr. Bawumia received the loudest applause in 2016, which he described as a show of disapproval of mismanagement of the economy leading to the collapse of many businesses in the Ashanti Region.
The NDC Regional chairman noted that the unpopular status of the NPP has loudly reflected in the ongoing voter transfer to the extent that they had to bus people from some selected constituencies like Bantama, Oforikrom, Kwabre West to areas where they know their candidates have already lost.
To him, it is evident that the police arrested two NPP supporters at AbodomKrotwea in the Bekwai constituency recently where a number of voter IDs from NPP members were collected with the promise to transfer their names to New Edubiase Constituency.
He lamented that to their outmost surprise, the police granted them bail following a supposed order from above, adding that they suspect that some high-ranked police officers are keenly involved in perpetrating that act and wish to unambiguously remind those Police officers that they the NDC would not be intimidated by insisting on their rights as citizens of Ghana.
The NDC Regional Chairman reminded the occupants of the new Kejetia terminal that, somewhere last year when Kejetia market was gutted by fire, Dr. Bawumia visited them and promised to reconstruct the affected area in the shortest possible time, but has reneged on his pledge.
Chairman Nana Kwasi urged the good people of the Ashanti Region to keep faith with NDC and vote massively for the former President John Dramani Mahama as he has a better track record in terms of development in the Ashanti region.
