The minister in charge of the Sinai Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Agona Swedru, Rev. Martin Luther Yao Agbovi has described the timing of the re-opening of school for final year students in the tertiary, senior and junior high school and the voter registration exercise in this era of the Corona Virus pandemic as well as the deployment of troops to the Volta and Oti regions as wrong.
Speaking in an interview with this reporter at the first day of the voter registration exercise, Rev. Agbovi hinted that reports that the disease is now being recorded among some of the students vindicate his earlier position that the government should have waited for a while to ascertain the trend of the spread of the disease before asking the students to go to school.
He also said the beginning of the voter registration exercise currently on-going across the country at a time when Covid-19 is still spreading in the country like wildfire would put the majority of potential voters at risk, irrespective of the announcement by the Electoral Commission that it has put measures in place to ensure the protection of people who will go and register, as according to Rev.
Agbovi most of the people are not following the safety protocols such as social distancing and wearing of nose masks. He again questioned the rationale behind the deployment of armed military personnel to the Volta and Oti regions which are perceived to be the stronghold of the opposition party at a time that such are Nationwide exercise like voters registration is going on.
He expressed concern that this situation may arouse the suspicion by many that the development is an attempt to disenfranchise potential voters in the region by putting fear into them with the presence of the armed military personnel, which he said might not be the intended purpose.
He later advised the opposition National Democratic Congress not to make too much capital out of the situation, but rather call for a dialogue with the government on the matter, and if possible withdraw the troops to save the situation from further suspicion by sections of the public.
From: Robert Ayanful- Agona Swedru