By Iddi Yire
Accra, Mar, GNA – Mr Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, the Minister Designate for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, says the December 8, 2020 electoral violence, which occurred in the Techiman South Constituency, is regrettable.
“I believe it was on December 8th, it was after the announcement of the results. Mr Chairman, what I will say is that it was a very regrettable and sad event,” Mr Korsah said.
In a response to a question by Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, the MP for Techiman North, when he took his turn during vetting at the Appointments Committee of Parliament in Accra, Mr Korsah said little did they know that after the declaration of results, such a thing would happen.
Mrs Ofosu-Agyare asked: “Before the Electoral Commission (EC) announced that you have won the election, something very sad happened, people lost their lives (at the Coalition Centre), others got injured; what have you done about it?”
“And what assurance can you give to the people of Techiman, I’m sure everybody is listening and waiting for this question, what assurance can you give them that this will not happen again?”
Mr Korsah, also the Member of Parliament for Techiman South and a former Deputy Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, responded that: “Mr Chairman, what I will say is that it was a very regrettable and sad event.”
“…In the run-up to the elections in Techiman South, we had relative peace, there was cordiality and for the first time, the parties came together, worked together and prosecuted a campaign devoid of violence and tensions.”
“…As politicians we are in elections to win but human lives can never be exchanged for winning an election, especially so, when it was about my victory or an election that I was involved in.”
He said a lot of lessons had been learnt and “we have come together even much more than before that incident.”
“I relate very well with the families and have helped them to get back on life, but I think that it does not end there, that was an election where there was an election security task force headed by the police commander.”
The nominee said he believed in learning lessons from the event and the need to make sure it did not happen again.
“They ought to have given us some report. Mr Chairman, I am aware that the Honourable Ambrose Dery, who was then Minister of the Interior, travelled to Techiman and assured us of some works ongoing”.
He said later, they were told the matter had been sent to court, however, he wished that the matter would be brought to a finality.
“And what I can say before this Committee is that it was regrettable, very sad and especially so when one of those who lost their lives is my nephew, who got hit by a bullet,” Mr Korsah said.
The Techiman South Parliamentary election was one of the keenly contested elections in 2020.
Pandemonium broke out at the collation centre over the results when the Electoral Commission (EC) declared that the New Patriotic Party’s Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah had won against Mr Christopher Bayere of the National Democratic Congress.
Both candidates had earlier declared themselves winners.
The violence led to the firing of shots, allegedly by security officials, leading to the death of two persons.
GNA