The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has thrown its support behind the Ghana Police Service to take action against individuals involved in the violence that disrupted the parliamentary re-run election in Walewale.
Addressing the media at a press conference, the General Secretary of the party, Justin Kodua Frimpong, emphasized that the NPP is committed to upholding the country’s rule of law and will not shield anyone who violates it.
He said, “For the information that we have, we know they [the Ghana Police Service] arrested some people yesterday so I want us to leave it to the professionals to do their job. But what I can say is that the party will give helpful support to the Ghana Police Service and anyone that will be established as the one being the cause of the chaos in the electoral process will be dealt with according to the laws of the country.”
According to him “the party will not come in to make any plead for such a person. The New Patriotic Party is not known for violence. The New Patriotic Party per our record shows clearly that we are a party that believes in the rule of law. We are a party that believes in internal democracy and therefore will not do anything that will undermine the peace and stability in our party.”
This follows an incident where some party members disrupted the sorting process, snatched ballot boxes, and were subsequently arrested by the police. The Electoral Commission (EC) dismissed the process and annulled the results.
Meanwhile, the party’s National Executive Committee has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday, September 11, 2024, to decide on how to unify the party in the constituency and retain the seat in Walewale.
The General Secretary added that the party is capable of resolving the issue before the EC’s Friday deadline. “So certainly a decision will be made, and the decision will be based on one that addresses the issues that happened at Walewale, one that will seek to reconcile the party at Walewale and that will also seek to bring unity at Walewale and make sure that the party retain its seat at Walewale,” Mr. Kodua added.
He reiterated “we have the power to deal with issues concerning parliamentary matters and we’ve done it before. So certainly I can assure you that tomorrow a decision will be made by the national executive committee of our party which has to be made because Friday is the deadline for the closed-door nomination.”