Ghana Armed Forces collaborating with media to curb political violence

The Ghana Armed Forces has organised an interactive session with editors and senior journalists as part of efforts to build stronger alliance with the press to curb political violence ahead the 2016 polls.

Over the weekend, 24 private and public media outlets met with the military high command and the Inspector General of Police to discuss ways to preserve the prevailing peace and security.

This is the second time this year the military has held such fora with the media and prior to this, a similar encounter was organised in 1999.

Air Marshal Michael Samson-Oje, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), said the Armed Forces and other partner security institutions are prepared to safeguard the sanctity of Ghana’s democracy.

He urged media practitioners to work closely with the security in order to guarantee peaceful, free and fair elections.

“It is not for nothing that the media is referred to as the fourth estate of the realm,” Sampson-Oje said, describing the media as “political and institutional force” whose authority ought not be taken too lightly.

The power of the media has been amplified by technological advances in recent years, he said, and this has transformed journalism in the country.

It has expanded its capacity to further the cause of democracy and at the same time there is the need to be careful of its potential to create challenges, he said.

“We will like to call on the media to give the people of Ghana timely and fair reportage and also to block out anyone who uses foul or abusive language or any form of hate speech,” he said.

The CDS also advised the youth against manipulation by the political actors to foment trouble and destabilise national peace as the political campaign intensifies.

“I want to sound a note of caution to any person or group of persons who intend to cause any kind of trouble during the election period,” he said, “We in the military are ready and prepared together with the police and other sister security services to deal ruthlessly with any such person or group.”

“I wish to especially appeal to our young and energetic youth not to allow themselves to be deceived and be used for violent acts.”

He said the Armed Forces would abide by all the ethical codes and principles of the military in the prosecution of their assigned tasks in the forthcoming elections.

“We intend to play our role without prejudice, fear or favour,” he said, “we remain committed to our oath to defend the territorial integrity of the nation, and in this resolve, we shall not falter.”

Commissioner of Police Christian Tetteh Yohonu, the Director of Operations of the Ghana Police Service, said it is untrue that the police hierarchy has added new names to the special voters list contrary to the law.

“It is not true that we are adding new names to the special voting list so as to bloat it, whether the person is voting on the voting day or is voting on the special day, the person has only one opportunity to vote,” he said.

“There is nothing like any new names, all the people that we have are all registered, valid voters, and they have the opportunity to vote only once.”

Barely two weeks from now around 14 million Ghanaians will go to the polls to choose a president and 275 lawmakers in nearly 29,000 polling stations across the country.

Political pundits have predicted the 2016 polls to be a close race between the ruling National Democratic Congress John Dramani Mahama and the main opposition New Patriotic Party Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Source: GNA