The Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwah has stated categorically that government will not be blackmailed by anybody with the threats of votes. He was reacting to threats by the Andani youth who have vowed not to vote for the NDC if it fails to prosecute the killers of the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya Na Yakubu Andani. The Andani Youth at a press conference in Tamale on Wednesday asked the government to redeem its campaign pledge of finding the killers of the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani and his elders or risk electoral defeat in the next election. A spokesperson for the Andani Youth Mohammed Sisu told Joy News’ Dzifa Bampoh government has taken them for granted and warned the MPs in Dagbon to find other jobs because they will be voted out of power in 2012. “The government cannot still be telling us that they are still processing the appeal. They cannot tell us [that]. How many months now? What we want the government to know is that we are fed up,” he sniped. “…What we the youth of Andani want [are] people who will stand for our cause and stand for the right things. Fight justice; fight for our liberty. We will never give our vote to any particular party that will look down upon our effort,” he warned. But government in response said it has done enough to unravel the mystery behind the killing of the Ya-Na and will not be blackmailed with votes by the Andani Youth. “As for the Andani youth who are threatening and saying that they will not vote for the NDC, I believe that as adults who have attained universal adult suffrage we make the determination on who we vote for at the personal level. I do not think that voting for anybody should be used as blackmail for which people can think they can do anything and threaten you with their votes,” Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told Joy FM. When he was reminded of the campaign promise then candidate Mills made to the people of Dagbon to find the killers of Ya-Na, the deputy minister said anybody who loses a relative, friend or a loved one has a right to justice and it is only responsible for anybody to promise to use the state machinery to investigate and bring perpetrators of those heinous crime to book. Whilst at it, he said government would not succumb to any form of arm-twisting from any section of the public. “…There is nothing wrong when you make this pledge. I think what everybody would have to understand is that there are laws in this country and those laws must be followed. Whoever wants to decide what to do with their thumb or their votes on voting day, let that day come and that is their right to do what they want to do. But for now there are laws in this country and we all have to abide by the laws. None of us is above the law and nobody can use votes to as it were threaten anybody of perpetuate further injustice in this country,” he warned. He assured of government’s unflinching commitment to pursue the killers of the Ya-Na and to ensure peace by empowering the committee of eminent chiefs to broker peace between the Abudus and Andanis.