The Tamale Central MP, Murtala Mohammed, has criticised President Akufo-Addo for not commenting on the military brutalities that took place at Ashaiman on Tuesday in his State of the Nations Address (SONA).

The President on Wednesday, March 8 delivered the SONA on the floor of Parliament.

During the session, President Akufo-Addo touched on Covid-19 funding, shortage of child vaccines, International Monetary Fund programme amongst others.

However, the President was silent on the recent killing of a military officer and the reprisal attack on residents by soldiers.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/military-brutalise-ashaiman-residents-after-soldier-was-killed/

This, according to the Tamale MP, portrays the President's lack of sympathy and empathy.

He believes that if the President had feelings for those affected, he would have condemned the act.

“First and foremost, were you not shocked that the President didn’t find a little space in his heart to condemn the military brutality in Ashaiman?

https://www.myjoyonline.com/soldiers-cant-take-the-law-into-their-own-hands-ashaiman-mp/

“A military officer was barbarously murdered by unscrupulous individuals at Ashaiman. The Police had commenced an investigation and we were very confident that the Police would identify those who engaged in that heinous crime so that they would be brought to book… the President indeed allowed the military, because he is the Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces … to unleash terror…I was thinking that the President would have found some space, at least to express his sympathy and empathy to the people of Ashaiman.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/ashaiman-military-brutality-our-operation-was-not-for-vengeance-gaf/

“But there isn’t any space in the President's heart left for sympathy and empathy. If there were such spaces left in his heart, he would have condemned the killing of innocent people in Techiman which occasioned his becoming the President of the Republic of Ghana” he said.

Mr. Mohammed described the SONA as the “most disappointing, depressing, frustrating, boring” he has ever participated in or watched.

https://www.myjoyonline.com/full-text-president-akufo-addos-2023-sona-speech-delivered-to-parliament/

This, he opined, could be sensed even in the faces of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) MPs.

Pointing out the shortcomings in the SONA, he said the President should have told Ghanaians the true state of the country, no matter how bitter the situation is.

He went on to say that while the address was ongoing, “he thought he was watching a cartoon network.”