Nana Dare Prez Mills

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

Presidential hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, has challenged President Atta Mills to take the first initiative to calm the rising tensions in the country.

'The instrument of law and order are in the hands of the President; if he tells them [Security agencies] to do their duty without fear or favour, we would have law and order in the country', he told DAILY GUIDE at Wednesday's Ferdinand Ayim memorial lectures delivered by NPP's Vice Presidential candidate, Dr. Mamudu Bawumia.

Nana Addo's statement is a direct response to key officials of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), who have called on him to withdraw his controversial 'all-die-be-die' statement as a prerequisite to peace in the country.

These critics argue that this statement has given impetus to NPP members to return violence with violence, and has been responsible for the pockets of violence that the country has experienced since the biometric voters' registration process started about 40 days ago.

'We are doing our best, but at the end of the day, those who are responsible for the country, they have the first responsibility for ensuring peace,' he said.

In mounting pressure to force Nana Addo to withdraw his mantra, Deputy Chief of Staff, Alex Segbefia, asked the NPP flag-bearer to publicly withdraw his 'all-die-be-die' mantra and apologise to Ghanaians.

Mr. Segbefia said both Akufo-Addo and the NPP as a party must take responsibility of every act of bloodshed that might occur in Ghana ahead of the elections.

'They have an explanation for the terminology 'all-die-be-die' and simply put Ghanaians have told them that 'all-die-be-die' connotes violence and therefore we don't think it's a good slogan,' he said.

'Yet they insist and are going with the slogan 'all-die-be-die'. Let me make it clear and here and now that every act of violence and unruly behaviour that happens in Ghana between today and when we have the elections will be because of the NPP, Nana Addo and the 'all-die-be-die' slogan,' the Deputy Chief of Staff stated.

The NPP has always maintained that the statement had been deliberately misconstrued by the NDC for mischievous reasons; 'It was just to edge the party supporters on towards the 2012 elections and not for wrong reasons', campaign manager of the NPP, Emmanuel Boakye Agyarko noted.

Meanwhile, when asked to comment about the incendiary statements made by the NPP Parliamentarian for the Assin North constituency, Kennedy Agyapong, Nana Akufo-Addo declined, saying that the statement was already in court and he did not like commenting about cases laid before the courts.

The NPP recently issued a statement to distance itself from every statement that would incite the passions of citizens in the country, including those made by Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, whose lawyers say he was provoked to make those statements because of the violence being meted out to NPP members at registration centres.

By Rapheael Adeniran