The Minority has accused the government of deploying military personnel to intimidate voters under the guise of enforcing a recently imposed ban on grain exports.
This accusation comes in the wake of a severe drought affecting the northern regions of the country.
On Monday, August 26, the government announced an immediate ban on grain exports. Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul stated that military personnel had been deployed to enforce the ban at the country’s borders.
However, the Minority has expressed concerns about the government’s true intentions, alleging that the deployment is an attempt to suppress votes.
Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee, James Agalga, at a presser in Accra on Friday noted that: “If they have no ulterior motives, then they ought to have given us timelines. The fact that there are no timelines gives us reason to suspect that they only used the crisis, related to the drought up north and the potential for us to have some food security challenges, to deploy the military to intimidate voters.”
“Otherwise, there should be timelines. We further backed our assertions with what happened in the roundup of the 2020 elections…So our suspicions are justifiable.”