Two private citizens have petitioned President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to broaden the scope of the Commission Inquiry probing the violence that rocked the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.

Eric Nartey Yeboa and Yussif Ibrahim Bangsua say the current scope of the Commission is too limited to bring closure to by-election violence in Ghana.

“…there are four recent by-elections in Ghana that were also characterized by violence and have many victims still suffering effects.

“The petitioners believe that the AWW by-election violence was occasioned by the unresolved previous by-elections violence. Therefore, to be able to bring by-elections violence in Ghana to a closure, the root of the violence must be traced and uprooted,” extracts of the petition sighted by Myjoyonline.com said.

Eric Nartey Yeboa and Yussif Ibrahim Bangsua also hold the view that Inn the Emile Short-led Commission of Inquiry into the Ayawaso West Wuogon violence fails to investigate the violence that rocked other by-elections violence and “mitigate the pains of the victims of those instances and or bring the perpetrators to book, there would be a clear discrimination and bias against the victims of those by-elections and an endorsement of the wrongful acts of the perpetrators of the violence.”

They mention  the 2009 Akwatia by-election violence; the 2010 Atiwa by-election “where the violence became so pervasive that a land cruiser was driven through a crowd of ordinary citizens injuring many of them”; the 2009 Wulensi by-election “in which the violence was so massive that live bullets were fired into a crowd of ordinary citizens injuring many of them”; the 2015 Talensi by-election ‘where the violence led several people brutalised” as previous by-election-related disturbances that equally require probing.

“The petitioners respectfully submit that your Excellency extends the terms of reference of the commission to cover the elections stated…above so as to uproot election violence…” the petitioners demanded.

Emile Short Commission

Government inaugurated the three-member Commission of Inquiry to look into the violence which occurred on Thursday, January 31, during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.

Former Commissioner of CHRAJ Justice Emile Short, Prof. Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu and a former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Patrick K. Acheampong, were appointed to among other things “make a full, faithful and impartial inquiry into the circumstances of, and establish the facts leading to, the events and associated violence.”

Justice Emile Short chairs the Commission, while law lecturer, Kofi Abotsi, was appointed its secretary.