We felt disrespected, Akufo-Addo or Chief of Staff should’ve received our petition – Opare Addo

The National Youth Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), George Opare Addo says President Akufo-Addo or the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, should have come to meet them and receive their petition during the ‘demand for justice’ protest on Tuesday, July 6, 2021.

During the protest, Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of operations, Emmanuel Bossman, received the petition at the premises of the Jubilee House on behalf of the President.

The NDC’s National Youth Organiser of the party, after reading out the content of the petition, presented it to Mr. Bossman, for onward submission to the President.

Opare Addo told Umaru Amadu Sanda on Face to Face on Citi TV that he felt that because the NDC is the biggest opposition party in the country, the President could have made time to listen to their concerns.

“We felt disrespected because my taxes pay them, and we are the biggest opposition party in this country. We are also not just an opposition, we have numbers in Parliament that can tilt anything in our favour, so I was expecting them to attach some importance to it but all the same, I wouldn’t want to disrespect the person who came, and they believe that he was competent enough to come and receive the petition and so be it.”

He added that the Chief of Staff accepting it in place of the President would have been more appropriate.

“If the president had come for the petition, all the better but, knowing Nana Akufo-Addo, he will not come there and take a petition from us. Maybe the Chief of Staff accepting the petition would have been better.”

There have been growing concerns about the use of military for civil events that ordinarily should be handled by the police.

The incidents that have angered many include the killing of some Ghanaians during the 2020 election, the invasion of Parliament by soldiers, the latest killing of two persons, and the injuring of four others who were protesting at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.

The brutalization of some residents of the Upper West Region in Wa by some soldiers over a supposed stolen phone has also been widely condemned.

Armed robbery and murder cases have also been on the rise in parts of the country.

These and many other incidents compelled the NDC youth to stage the demonstration in a bid to put pressure on government to have such issues resolved.

---citinewsroom