President Akufo Addo has denied claims of military invasion and intimidation against residents in the Volta Region, particularly, during the voter registration exercise.
According to him, the deployment was done across all border towns in the country including the Volta region, however, some social media users and political opponents twisted it to ethnic sentiments despite the detailed explanations given by the Minister for Defence and other Ministers.
To him, it was “because of the mischief that is so easily generated by some elements of social media, and also because of the season we are in, and the determination of some people to stir up ethnic sentiments in the hope of reaping some political advantage”.
Speaking at Keta, on Thursday, August 27, 2020, at a durbar held in his honour by the Awoamefia of the Anlo State, Togbui Sri III, President Akufo-Addo noted that there are currently 1,000 military personnel deployed along the country’s borders, of which 163 are deployed along the Volta Region border.
“This has been labelled a ‘military invasion of the Volta Region’. Togbewo, Mamawo, Volta Region is an integral part of the Republic of Ghana, and military deployments in a Region cannot be described as an invasion. Some elements of social media went into a frenzy, mostly with old videos taken in Accra and other parts of the world being passed off as residents of the Volta Region being brutalized by soldiers”, he stated.
He continued, “This has been escalated into accusations of ethnic cleansing, and the Government that I lead has been labelled as tribalist. Whilst social media is a useful tool for information sharing, it can also be, and has been, used to magnify small incidents, place pictures, videos and voices out of context, or simply generate outright fabrications, in order to stir up needless ethnic animosity amongst citizens who are, otherwise, living peacefully with one another.”
Source: GhanaFeed.com