• Kobina Tahir Hammon made an analogy of how some foreign nationals from neighbouring Togo had participated in the election re-run of the 2008 general elections as Ghanaians in Ketu South Constituency.
• He justified the military presence, saying it was to check the seeming influx of foreigners onto Ghana’s electoral roll.
• The military is there to make sure you vote if you are a Ghanaian and if you have the constitutional right to vote. That’s all there is. They are not electoral officers, but they are peacekeeping forces. They are keeping the peace. They [Togolese] walk into the [Volta Region] and come out normally but they are not Ghanaians. When they walk in there they can do whatever they do so I guess that is the reason for that.
Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi Asokwa, K.T Hammond has denied making ethnocentric comments against the people of the Volta Region.
The MP has been taken on by some members of the public over what they say are his unsavoury comments about the people of Togo and their relationship with residents in the Volta Region.
But speaking to Citi News, the Adansi Asokwa legislator said what he has been captured to be saying in a viral video has been taken out of context.
“That is not what I said. How can I brand the whole population of the Volta Region as non-Ghanaians? That was not what I said. I did not emphatically make that point. I have very good friends from the Volta Region including Fifi Kwetey, Okudzeto Ablakwa, Doe Adjaho some of whom are members of my fan club. I have grown well enough in politics to know that, you do not have to stigmatize a particular section of a country because of politics. I didn’t say that.”
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP while explaining the reason why some military personnel has been deployed to the Volta Region ahead of the voter registration exercise, made an analogy of how some foreign nationals from neighbouring Togo had participated in the election re-run of the 2008 general elections as Ghanaians in Ketu South Constituency.
He justified the military presence, saying it was to check the seeming influx of foreigners onto Ghana’s electoral roll.
“The military is there to make sure you vote if you are a Ghanaian and if you have the constitutional right to vote. That’s all there is. They are not electoral officers, but they are peacekeeping forces. They are keeping the peace. They [Togolese] walk into the [Volta Region] and come out normally but they are not Ghanaians. When they walk in there they can do whatever they do so I guess that is the reason for that,” he said.
Volta Regional Minority caucus to storm Ketu South tomorrow over military presence
Meanwhile, some members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) who belong to the Volta caucus on the Minority side in Parliament are set to storm the Ketu South District in the Volta Region tomorrow [Monday, June 29, 2020].
This follows concerns over the deployment of military personnel to some parts of the country, one of which is the Volta Region.
Even though there are suggestions that the deployment was to secure Ghana’s borders because of COVID-19 and the illegal entry of foreigners into the country, the Minority MPs are of the view that the presence of the military in the regions known to be NDC strongholds is to intimidate residents ahead of the voter registration exercise next week.
Already, some residents along the Ghana-Togo border in the southern part of the Volta Region say they are living in fear due to the presence of soldiers along the border.
But the Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in a tweet indicated that the MPs “stand in solidarity with the oppressed and we stand in readiness to confront & defeat bigotry”.
It is for this reason that they have resolved that “all MPs from the Volta Caucus in Parliament together with some of our national & regional party leaders shall lead a delegation to Ketu South tomorrow morning.”
He had earlier asserted that “as they antagonize the Volta Region and engage in incessant needless provocations, let us shower all regions with our love and respect as we prove to all why the NDC is the only political party with Members of Parliament from all the 16 regions of Ghana.”
Credit to Source: Citi News Room
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