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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta Region, has rejected claims by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the region, that they are sharing goodies to some Togolese nationals to lure them to register in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
According to the NDC, because most residents of the Volta Region have siblings in neighboring Togo, the party is only encouraging such people to come back home and have their names captured on the Electoral Commission’s database.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, the Volta Regional Youth Organizer of the NDC, Egypt Kobla Kudoto, said “we don’t have Togolese coming to register in Ghana. We have our people, brothers and sisters, cousins and relations who reside in Togo and therefore the time has come for them to come home and have their names in the register of Ghana because they are Ghanaians based in Togo.”
The Volta Regional Chairman of the NPP, John Peter Amewu, had accused government of diverting state resources to Togo in the November polls.
He insisted that government is transporting farming equipment to Togo to entice residents to come and register in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
But the NDC youth activist, Egypt Kobla Kudoto said the claims by the NPP “does not hold water.”
He said information available to the NDC suggests that over a million of Ghanaians are living in neighboring West African countries, so it is their hope to ensure that such persons are not disenfranchised in the November 7 general elections.
“…we thought it is possible to have more of our countrymen and women who are residing in Togo, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and the West African sub-region, Gambia and where ever they are to come home and have their names in the register rather than European cities that may not have the numbers that we are looking for.”
“If even 20 years ago, we could have over a million of Ghanaians returning from Nigeria due to the disturbances in that country, 20 years down the line I’m sure we should even have more than one million of our people residing in Togo. So if we are able to manage, work hard and get our Ghanaians back home, and Volta Region is the nearest in terms of when they want to come home, to come and have their names in their register because it is time their countrymen and women who are writing their names, so they have to come.”
Allegations of road, electrification projects in Togo false
On the allegations by the NPP Volta Regional Chairman that government had constructed road and extended electricity project to some communities in Togo to buy votes, Mr. Kudoto said it cannot be true saying “how can a sovereign country be there and we just walk in to build roads?”
“There is no project that the Ghana government is constructing in Togo. I’m not sure the protocols of ECOWAS will permit that. It’s not done; it’s not possible. All the issues that he is raising don’t hold water,” he added.
80,000 Togolese on voters registerhttp://ghanapoliticsonline.com
The revelation by the NDC youth activists comes on the back of claims by the NPP that close to are on Ghana’s voters’ register.http://ghanapoliticsonline.com
The NPP has demanded the compilation of a new voters’ register for the November elections arguing that the current one is bloated with names of foreigners and minors hence unfit for the upcoming polls.
But the EC had described the demands as “unconvincing” saying it will not compile a new register but agreed to audit the current one.
By-Citifmonline.com
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