Rev. Emmanuel Badu Amoah, the Executive Secretary for Peace Council in the Ashanti region, has called on all Ghanaians to continue to contribute their quota to help maintain the relative peace in the country.
According to him, without peace and unity no country or society can develop, there is therefore the need for all hands to be on deck to guard against anything that has potency to divide the nation.
Speaking on Garden City Radio, a subsidiary of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) as part of their weekly education programme on the network, he pleaded with all Ghanaians, particularly the youth of the country who are the future leaders not to allow themselves to be used as instrument for violence.
“Let’s all help to maintain the relative peace in the country”, he stressed.
Rev. Amoah while praising Ghanaians for their comportment for the just ended polls, however, condemned the shooting incidents that led to the demise of about 5 persons in some parts of the country.
“We should do everything possible to help prevent further or reoccurrences of such incidents as a nation”.
Rev. Amoah admitted that, some of their members are traumatized as a result of attacked on them.
According to him, they had over 300 monitors across the Country, especially in the hotspots during the general elections.
The Ashanti Regional branch of Peace Council Executive Secretary said “we’re not discouraged about attacked on us and our eminent persons are still engaging stakeholders behind the scenes as part of post-elections peace measures.
Despite the trauma on some of the Peace council members as a result of attacked on them, they are still determined to ensure peace”, he added.
It would be recalled that, after the just ended polls some members of Peace Council including its Chairman, Rev. Adu Gyamfi have been attacked twice by some political parties’ supporters and smashed their vehicles in the course of their duty to ensure post-election peace.
Rev. Emmanuel Badu Amoah said “as believers, we believe in our prayers and God has answered our prayers by given us almost balance Parliamentarians from the two leading political parties in the country.
And this should tell political leaders that, they need everyone to move Ghana forward.
He explained that, per what Ghanaians have voted for, the governing party will now use consensus building more instead of ‘bullying tactics’.
They are going to learn to understand their ‘enemies’ or opponents better in their decision making process.
He said the voting pattern in the 2020 would go a long way to reduce tension in the run-up to every general election.
He revealed that, the council after the polls engaged EC officials, three times and similar engagement were done with the various political parties before the declaration by EC all in their poised to ensure peace.
He cautioned the supporters of the winning party to desist from insinuation and cautioned the media to also refrain from inflaming passion.
On her part, Madam Harriet Takyi, Electoral Situation Room analyst stressed on the need for consensus building.
On what role they can still play, she indicated that the council is still engaging stakeholders to help resolve the misunderstanding and when all internal mechanisms failed, the aggrieved party may use the law courts as the last channel.
She was with a strong believe that it would not even get to that stage.
Madam Takyi said many at times, even after court ruling, there is still the need to engage parties hence the need for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in all matters.
