The National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate for the Ketu South Constituency in the Volta Region, Abla Dzifa Gomashie has dismissed remarks by President Akufo-Addo that videos from other places were passed off as videos of residents of the Volta Region being brutalized during the Voter registration exercise.
Ms. Dzifa Gomashie argued that the videos are not fake as the President sought to portray in his speech in the Volta Region.
According to her, she has in her possession videos of members of her constituency being brutalized during the new register compilation hence the President’s assertion that the videos were taken from incidents in other places and portrayed as happenings in the region is untrue.
The former Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts comments comes on the back of President Akufo-Addo’s denial during his tour of the Volta Region that the military were deployed to the region prior to the registration exercise to prevent residents of the region who are mainly Ewes from partaking in the exercise.
The President stated that there was no political or ethnic agenda behind the deployment of the military to the region.
The president also bemoaned attempts by some individuals on social media to create an impression of discrimination against Ewes by his government during the compilation of the new electoral roll by passing off videos from other places as videos of Voltarians being brutalized by military officers allegedly deployed to prevent them from taking part in the exercise.
But speaking on ‘Eyeswitness News’ on Accra based Citi FM, Ms. Dzifa Gomashie said though some of the videos maybe fake, most of the videos are real incidence of brutalities of people of the region by military officers deployed to the region in the run-up-to the registration exercise.
“May I use your platform to respectfully draw his Excellency’ attention to the fact that there is a specific video, that I can speak to, of a young man being brutalized and the constituency organizer of the NDC is seen in the video trying to tell them to back off,” she said.
She continued to say “Perhaps, there is one that maybe fake, I don’t know. There is one video that I have which I can share with you and I can see my constituency organizer (in the video). I Know the area. I know the individuals in the video. It was not fake. It was real. These are real.”
The former Deputy Minister also expressed her worries over what she said is the contradictory statements by government officials on the reasons for the military deployment to the region.
“Depending on who is speaking and on what platform they are on, the reasons for bringing the military into the community are different, that in itself is troubling, and we don’t know who to trust, or who is speaking the truth,” she bemoaned.
She, however, welcomed the president’s decision to set up a committee to investigate the reports of military brutalities in the region.
