Mr. James Kwaku Dumenyah, National Coordinator of the Public Interest and Research Advocacy Network (PIRAN-GH) has criticized the position of the government regarding the report of the Emile Short Commission.
He says the government has not been fair to Ghanaians and the Commissioners following the White Paper it issued.
“The Commissioners have been so much bruised that, they are even being accused of bias and incompetence”, Mr. Dumenyah noted.
“This is indeed demotivating and we risk losing such personalities with high calibre to bring their expertise to bear in future engagements when the need arises”, the PIRAN Coordinator noted.
The Commission was mandated to make a full, faithful and impartial enquiry into the circumstances of, and establish the facts leading to, the events that associated violence during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election as well as identify any person responsible for or who has been involved in the events and the associated violence and injuries.
It was also to enquire into any matter which it considers incidental or reasonably related to the causes of the events and the associated violence and injuries; to submit within one month its report to the President, giving reasons for its findings and recommendations, including appropriate sanctions, if any.
The witnesses who appeared before the Commission gave various accounts publicly and this event was screened live on national television and broadcast on radio. During the sitting of the Commission, very shocking and detail revelations came to light casting a serious doubt on the professionalism of some officers of the state.
Accordingly, the Commission concluded work and presented its report which actually highlighted blow by blow the events leading to the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election to the presidency on Thursday March 14, 2019.
The swift manner the Commission was constituted and how it worked hard to meet the timeline given, got Ghanaians thinking that the report was not going to be delayed in being released with accompanying Government White Paper, to give full and immediate expression to its work.
But this was never to be as civil organisations and other interest groups started to call on the government to release the report to the public so that the citizenry get to know the conclusions and recommendations of the Commission.
Mr. Dumenyah said PIRAN is not saying that the work of the Commission cannot or should not be criticized but for the government to say that “they failed to do an impartial work”, is just to say they came to the Commission with a preconceived position which position is unacceptable because “we know them and can vouch for their integrity”.
It is for this reason that PIRAN-Ghana thinks that government has not been fair to Ghanaians and the commissioners who had been slighted.
According to PIRAN the recommendations of the Commission are founded on evidence presented before it but the government thinks otherwise on most if not all the crucial ones and that even though the government has the power to do what it did, the PIRAN Coordinator believed it only sought to protect ‘one of its own’ by choosing to discount most of the pertinent findings and recommendations which constituted the crux of the matter.
As a result, the government failed the test as evidence of conscious attempt by government to window dress the issue abounds.
According to the PIRAN National Coordinator, the Government’s White Paper on the report released by the Emile Short Commission virtually ‘rubbishes’ all the efforts made by the Commission.
“This is really intriguing and confusing”, Mr. Dumenyah noted and wondered if the government really is committed to stumping out this type of operations against innocent citizens.
The PIRAN executive said it is also confusing because the current government is really seen as having a lot of clouds in upholding democratic principles and sanitising the political arena of undemocratic practices since it was the first time ever that a Commission of the sort was constituted with a high calibre of the Commissioners.
The lecturer noted that the government had a fine opportunity to deal with the issue and bring about the necessary reforms to strengthen the security services to be able to better protect us the citizens.
He said the advocacy group is at a loss as to why the president in one breath, condemned the violence that characterised the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election, especially around the La Bawaleshi Polling Station, describing it as an unfortunate and regrettable event and yet, the presidency does not agree with the key findings and recommendations of the Commission when it actually grounded its recommendations on evidence brought before it.
Mr. Dumenyah, who is also a lecturer at the (University of Mines and Technology UMaT) noted that the seeming slighting of the commissioners does not augur well as the government has failed to seize the opportunity to stump out election related violence and urged political leaders to show much commitment and walk their talk.
