Your ‘bloody’ re-election not different from coup – Blue Boy slams Akufo-Addo

Veteran Football Administrator Kofi Manu ‘Blue Boy’ has descended heavily on President Nana Akufo-Addo over sanctions slapped on Guinea after Guinean special forces seized power in a coup d’etat on Sunday.

The forces last Sunday arrested their president, Alpha Conde, and promised to change the country’s political architecture.

The now-ousted President Alpha Conde, in October 2020, won a controversial third term, but only after pushing through a new constitution in March 2020 allowing him to sidestep the country’s two-term limit.

The 82-year-old’s bid for a third term had been condemned by analysts and described as an abuse of power.

ECOWAS has since suspended the membership of Guinea.

Led by President Akufo-Addo during an extraordinary virtual summit on Wednesday, leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) demanded a return to the constitutional order.

ECOWAS also demanded the immediate release of Alpha Conde, who was arrested by special forces led by Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya.

However, Kofi Manu ‘Blue Boy’ believes ECOWAS is being hypocritical in their approach to the Guinea situation, stressing that Akufo-Addo should be ashamed for leading such a cause especially when his re-election was characterized by the killing and maiming of at least 6 persons last year.

“Guinean soldiers shot in the air to scare people but you call that one a coup how much more the shootings aimed at people during the elections?” he quizzed.

Speaking on the Gumbe Show hosted by Mugabe Maase, Mr. Manu stated, “during the elections, a 13-year-old was killed at Savelugu…people were shot and killed at Techiman and Ododiodoo. You [Akufo-Addo] used force; you killed to become a president of Ghana [and ] you don’t consider that to be a coup?”

To him, the shooting incident at Techiman South in the Bono East was sanctioned by armed men in uniform and argued that they could not have “aimed at the unarmed crowd” and shot to kill if their superiors, who are controlled by the president, had not given them the green light to do so.

To him, the Guineans are happy about the coup because jubilations were seen on the streets of Conakry some hours after it had been reported that Conde had been captured by the forces.

“These Guineans were jubilating and thanking the soldiers for ending the regime of a tyrant and you [Akufo-Addo] is kicking against something that has made the people happy,” he added in Akan.