Former Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, has deplored what he insists are attempts to subjugate dissenting voices against the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration using the military.
The general Ghanaian populace, he said, has to be very worried about the path the country has taken with such an open display of intolerance by the government and attempts to quell critical voices.
He said, “The only reason why we are here in this Parliament is that 30 million Ghanaians cannot be here.”
“The only reason why President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is in the Jubilee House is that Ghanaians cannot all be there.”
“The military is there because they have a duty to protect us; their job is not to be gunning young people down and killing people,” he stated.
The former Minister issued the condemnation during an interview in Parliament last Friday when he addressed the incident in Ejura where two protesters were shot dead and others injured by armed military officers and Wa, where soldiers went on rampage and assaulted residents.
Mr. Armah Buah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle Constituency in the Western Region, lamented that Ghanaians cannot even talk about their worsening economic situation and become targets when they express their displeasure.
“We can’t even demonstrate. You know what has happened in the last few months about young people in Ghana attempting to express their views about the hardship they are facing.”
“They have the right to complain but they’ve basically been blocked from demonstrating,” he added.
He expressed his pleasure that the youth wing of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has decided to embark on a demonstration and dared the government to ‘gun them down.’
According to him, the planned demonstration does not need police permission because same is enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of the Republic.
Every Ghanaian, he said, has the right to express himself about the conditions in the country and also has the right to protest
Mr. Armah Buah rebuffed arguments that the Defense Minister has promised proper investigations would be conducted into the Ejura and Wa incidents, and asked how many times the Minister has offered such vain pledges.
He noted that there has been a growing pattern of inconsistency in the investigation of such matters and asked, “What has happened to the Emile Short Report on the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election incident?
“The people of Ghana have lost faith and that’s the reality. They’ve lost faith and just because Ghanaians are quiet, that does not mean they are not…. It is just that people are tired.”
“I mean they have to survive; they can’t even make ends meet and on top of that when you want to open your mouth to express something that is enshrined in our Constitution you’ll be shot at? In a country like ours and not by anybody else but the military that is supposed to protect us?”
“This is an outrage and every meaningful Ghanaian and everybody who loves this country must speak out; Enough of it.”
Source: MyPublisher24.com
