Smoke out, arrest, prosecute killers of voters to shore up trust in vigilantism fight – IDEG to IGP

It is important that the Inspector-General of Police and his administration bring the suspects who murdered some voters across the country during the recently-held general elections, to book, Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, has said.

According to the National Election Security Taskforce, five people were killed during the elections.

They died between the 7th and 9th December from 61 recorded cases of electoral and post-electoral incidents nationwide – most of them involving gunshots, the Joint Operation Centre of the National Election Security Taskforce (NESTF) noted.

In the Awutu Senya East constituency of the Central Region, two people were injured from a shooting incident by (a) civilian(s) in the community during the day of voting.

In the Odododiodoo constituency of the Greater Accra Region, two civilians died and six got injured from a shooting incident by (a) fellow civilian(s) in the community on the day of the polls.

Still in the Greater Accra Region, four people, including a policeman, got injured from a shooting incident at the collation centre of Ablekuma Central constituency a day after the polls.

In the Techiman South constituency of the Bono East Region, two people died while four others got injured from a shooting incident by some security personnel at the collation centre a day after the polls.

In the same region, a man was arrested on the day of the elections, for snatching a ballot box.

Another shooting incident by civilians in the Savelugu constituency of the Northern Region led to the death of one person and injury of three others a day after the elections.

In the same constituency, here was a separate shooting incident by (a) civilian(s) at the police station, when people besieged the station a day after the polls.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, 16 December 2020 at a press conference about the elections and the aftermath, Dr Akwetey observed that “electoral violence, impunity and injustice have permeated the entire system and it needs to be addressed."

“In our deliberations yesterday, it was clear that – at least we heard from the media that – the person who snatched the ballot box in Sene [West] had been arrested, prosecuted and jailed for three months, which is what we think is extremely important and we need more of that," he said.

Now, he noted, “we’ve been worried that in this election, we were told there would be over 60,000 security personnel deployed and despite their deployment, we’ve also heard that five people – indeed, the police themselves have admitted five people were killed."

“We also know of the electoral violence that occurred during the registration process," he recalled.

In IDEG’s view, the IGP must crack the whip to engender confidence in the citizenry as far as the fight against vigilantism and electoral violence is concerned.

“We wish to call on the IGP and his colleagues who supported him on the national election security taskforce, to work very hard to bring those culprits to book”, Dr Akwetey said, noting: “Arrests, investigations and prosecutions resulting in the punishment that the court will mete out, are vital to healing the wounds and also making us believe strongly in the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act and all the efforts that the President says he’s making: zero tolerance toward vigilante violence and we think that it is time that the police showed greater efficacy in bringing those who killed others just because they were going to cast their polls, to book."

“We think this is important and we would help in the management of the situation facing us," he added.