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Don Blasts Asiedu Nketia

By Daily Guide
Politics Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and Dr. Richard Amoako Baah
AUG 21, 2015 LISTEN
Johnson Asiedu Nketiah and Dr. Richard Amoako Baah

Head of Political Science Department of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Richard Amoako Baah has criticised the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for opposing the compilation of new voters' register, describing it as a paranoid move.

General Secretary of NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah on Wednesday mounted a public-spirited defence for the maintenance of the existing voters' register.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is demanding a fresh voters' register since the old one has the names of non-Ghanaian voters, especially Togolese.

At a press conference in Accra, the NDC chief scribe accused the NPP of engaging in tribal politics and attempting to perpetuate fraud on Ghanaians with the claim of a bloated register, intimating that it was a gratuitous attempt by the opposition party to attack some tribes.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah was also dismissive of evidence adduced by the NPP that more than 76,000 foreigners are on Ghana's electoral register, for which reasons a new one must be compiled, insisting that the NPP massaged the said evidence to justify its unfounded call for fresh voters' register.

But speaking on Kesben Fm, a Kumasi-based radio station, the political scientist said the NDC chief scribe was uneasy with the call for a new voters' register.

'Why has this triggered the shivering reflex of Asiedu-Nketiah? His attitude smacks of something fishy. After all, the evidence was not given to NDC rather EC of which he is not a member. It is for the Electoral Commission (EC) to decide whether those evidences are credible or not, and not Asiedu Nketiah,' he asserted.

Dr. Baah wondered why the NDC was against the compilation of fresh voters' register, arguing that a new electoral register would not inure to the benefit of any political party.

For him, the pontificating by Mr. Asiedu Nketiah, popularly known as General Mosquito, would lead the nation to nowhere, as the EC has the final say on the matter.

The political scientist dismissed the assertion of the NDC' General Secretary that the NPP was plying the ethnic card in attempt to attack some tribes in the country, noting that the claim was unfounded, flimsy and preposterous.

According to him, the move was a deliberate attempt on the part of the ruling party to divert attention and possibly change the course of discussion over calls for fresh voters' register.

He said the issue of foreigners on the electoral register, as raised by the NPP, cannot be swept under the carpet and that the NDC must be transparent for the matter to be investigated.

'If Asiedu Nketiah keeps on fighting the NPP's call for new register, then it gives an impression that there is something fishy. I made the earlier call for fresh voters' register before the NPP joined. The admission that minors found their way onto the register underscores this important demand,' he said.

Dr. Baah urged the NDC and other well-meaning Ghanaians not to debase the argument for fresh electoral register to ethnicity.

'He (Asiedu Nketiah) is trying to shift the goal post. Ga West, Adenta Municipality, Porne, Katamanso, Nzema East, Suaman, Amanfi East, Sekondi were mentioned in the findings and so where from this ethnic card?' he asked rhetorically.

'Is it Nana Akufo-Addo from Akyem or Bawumia from the North playing the ethnic card? It's clear that there is something wrong. Looking at the way he is shivering. Does it mean he does not want the truth to come out?' the political scientist quizzed.

He further called on the EC to investigate the matter thoroughly.

From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi

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