We will instruct our members to take action if Mahama’s billboards are continually pulled down – Campaign team warns NPP

The campaign team of John Dramani Mahama has admonished the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to campaign peacefully and respect the rights of other parties to advertise their candidates and messages.

In a press release signed by Joyce Bawah Mogtari who is the spokesperson for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, it said the campaign team will not tolerate acts that affect the campaign of John Dramani Mahama.

It said it will be forced to instruct members of the NDC across the country to take action if more billboards of John Dramani Mahama are pulled down.

“The Mahama Campaign wishes to caution that such acts will no longer be tolerated. If they persist, we will be compelled to instruct our members to take necessary measures to prevent such acts across the country.

“We urge the NPP to campaign peacefully and respect the rights of others to advertise their political candidates and messages. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our political discourse,” the release from Mahama’s campaign team said.

The caution comes after a billboard of John Dramani Mahama was pulled down in Tema in the Greater Accra Region on Friday, July 19.

Meanwhile, the campaign team of Mahama has called on Alliance Media to take legal action against the Chief Executive of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) for pulling down the billboard.

Below is a copy of the release from Mahama's campaign team:

The Mahama 2024 Campaign has become aware of the Chief Executive of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA)’s action earlier today, pulling down a billboard of HE John Dramani Mahama, mounted by Alliance Media in Tema.

This act is unacceptable and constitutes a needless provocative attempt to raise the political temperature in the country.

Alliance Media, a legally registered Ghanaian advertising business, has the rightful permission to mount Out-of-Home (OOH) and Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) sites nationwide. They diligently pay the required annual fees to the TMA and other assemblies. Therefore, it is utterly unacceptable for the TMA chief executive to tear down their legally placed billboard, which the Mahama Campaign rented and paid for.

While we expect Alliance Media to take legal action against the TMA for this act, we want to warn the TMA boss and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that such needless acts, which lead to deliberate political clashes and violence, are detrimental to the growth of our democracy.

We have noted a similar act in the Ablekuma North constituency, where the NPP blocked a billboard mounted by the NDC parliamentary candidate. And despite the NPP's unwarranted provocation in various parts of the country, we note that institutions like the National Peace Council and religious and civil society organisations are watching.

The Mahama Campaign wishes to caution that such acts will no longer be tolerated. If they persist, we will be compelled to instruct our members to take necessary measures to prevent such acts across the country.

We urge the NPP to campaign peacefully and respect the rights of others to advertise their political candidates and messages. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our political discourse.

As President Mahama noted in an opinion piece on Tuesday, there must be “peace and decorum in our political discourse, especially in the run-up to high-stakes elections such as those we face in December this year.”

SIGNED:
Joyce Bawah Mogtari
Spokesperson
Friday, July 19, 2024.