By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the National Peace Council (NPC) is calling for justice and reconciliation for three deceased persons.
According to the Secretariat, the best means of achieving sustainable peace and amending broken relationships after the December 7 Presidential and Parliamentary polls is to find justice for the deceased persons and their families.
The NPC’s regional secretariat has confirmed that three (3) persons, all males, have died in the Ashanti region so far after the December 7 elections.
Many others have also sustained injuries, with some of them in critical condition and are on admission at hospitals, including Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, receiving emergency care.
The Ahafo Ano South West Constituency, in the Ashanti region with Mankranso as the capital, recorded the first fatality following a misunderstanding regarding the collation of the Polling Station results.
The Ashanti Regional Executive Secretary of the Council, Reverend Emmanuel Badu Amoah, who revealed this to GBC’s regional Correspondent, Nicholas Osei-Wusu, in Kumasi, indicated that the death was through a gunshot by people ‘in uniform’ in the presence of an observer of the NPC.
“The first report was that there was an argument at the Collation Centre at Mankranso, and from the eyewitness perspective, who is also one of our observers. He said all of a sudden, there were two ballot papers, and they were arguing whether or not those papers should be added before it would be declared.
Before then, the Centre had been invaded by some thugs, so the number of people supposed to be there had been packed, and they were forcing the EC to declare. …Then it was not long that they saw some armed officers come in; whether they were military or not, we cannot tell, but they were in military uniform.
The men in uniform, according to the witness, fired the shots,” Rev. Amoah narrated.
He continued that another violence broke out at Akomadan in the Offinso North Constituency in which two persons also died.
According to Rev. Amoah, “There was a report on Monday that there was an issue of fertiliser which belonged to the state, and some whose identity was not disclosed were seen carting away the fertiliser, but some locals went there to stop them, and in the process, some fatalities were reported.
Again, based on the outcome of the election, some people were also annoyed because they lost and went all out to vent their frustration and anger at innocent citizens, which resulted in bloody clashes between the young men.”
The Regional NPC’s Executive Secretary, while calling for a genuine reconciliation toward mending the broken relationships, called for justice as the only means to achieving sustainable peace in those affected areas.
