Former President John Dramani Mahama has passionately appealed to the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs to add their voices to calls for justice for persons who died during the 2020 elections.

He made the appeal when he paid a courtesy call on the chiefs as part of his 'Thank you tour' of the Eastern Region.

Addressing the Chiefs and other prominent members who had turned up at the gathering, on Tuesday, he emphasised that it is regrettable that some citizens had to lose their lives while participating in an election.

"We've held elections in this country over the years since 1992 till date and I've never seen an election in which eight of our compatriots get killed just because they are participating in the electoral process."

He further stated that the incident did not come to him as a surprise since some members of the New Patriotic Party had indicated that what happened at Ayawaso during the 2019 by-election was a dress rehearsal to the election in 2020.

"The sad thing is that for the Ayawaso West Wuoguon, a Commission was set up and recommendations were made including payment of compensation to the victims. We also heard about the killing that took place at Ejura. In that case, too, a commission of inquiry was set up and it has come out with its findings which includes compensating the families of the injured people and those who died," he said.

"Unfortunately, with those who died during the election, this government is unwilling to even investigate the cause of their death or to do anything in respect of compensating them.

Owing to this, he entreated the august house to compel the government to carry out an investigation into what caused the deaths and also make recommendations for those who lost their lives, their families as well as those who got injured during the incident.