President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urged the National Peace Council to be fair to all sides of the Political divide and treat everyone equitably.
Addressing the 13 member National Peace Council at the Jubilee House during a courtesy call, the President said the silence of the Council during attacks on New Patriotic Party (NPP) members in Sankore in Asuafo South, before election 2016 was a source of worry to him and his campaign team then.
To that end, President Akufo-Addo suggested to the Council to overcome political pressures that may come to bear on them in the exercise of their duties and address peace and conflict issues holistically.
“At the same time, I think that you must accept that none of us are inviolate from comments and criticisms. I sit here and I know very well what it means to be the object of criticism. I think you must also to take it in good fate.
“For instance, the example of the issues in Sankore. The issues in Sankore begun in the previous government when the member of Parliament there who later became the Regional Minister in Brong Asafo was associated with systematic violence against members of my party.
“Somehow rather, there was never an investigation into the matter. No liability was found and nobody was held accountable. I was in Sankore myself and I was met by a very frightened and clearly terrified NPP community who basically wanted me to stay because they thought they will be attacked if I left them. The Police at the time said it was a sensitive matter. There comes the change and still they don’t see any effort being made to come to grips with the issues,” the President said.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Reverend Emmanuel Asante indicated that the Council has no permanent office.
According to Rev. Asante, the Council is currently perching in a three room office facility owned by the GNPC and they have been served notice to vacate the premises.
Additionally, he bemoaned the inadequate budgetary allocation to the Council which he said is the reason why all of the Council’s capital items budgeted for from 2013 to 2016 could not be purchased because there was no allocation to enable them do same.
The President assured the Council members that his administration will give immediate attention to all the challenges as have been identified by the Chairman of the Governing board.
Source: Starrfmonline
