National Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), George Opare Addo, who can be the Minister of Youth Empowerment and Development, is going through mounting allegations over the deployment of armed National Security operatives to intrude in scholar elections.
Eyewitnesses and scholar leaders declare that closely armed operatives, some reportedly carrying AK-47 and Scorpion rifles, stormed the Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana (GRASAG) elections at Ensign Global University in Kpong on Wednesday, March 5. The operatives allegedly disrupted voting, intimidated and assaulted college students, and blocked entry to polling facilities, amongst others.
Reports counsel the operation was coordinated by key figures within the NDC Youth Wing, together with its Director of Operations, Bernard Dartey (alias Kawawa), and Warrant Officer Class 1 (WO1) Yakubu, each of the National Security Secretariat – Blue Gate.
Bernard Dartey who was recruited into the National Security operative lower than a month in the past admitted executing the plan on Opare Addo’s directions. Their alleged mission: to make sure that Jimmy Mawuse Adangbe, received the race of the GRASAG presidency in any respect prices. Notably, the election featured three presidential candidates, Jimmy Mawuse Adangbe, Baba Suleman, and Favour Aikins.
Additionally, some notable NDC activists wearing navy uniforms, allegedly below Bernard Dartey’s command, labored alongside these operatives to intimidate college students and impede the voting course of.
Allegations additionally implicate people related to the youth wing, together with Director of Students Affairs Bright Baah Egyir, Richard Class-Peters, Anthony Baah Danquah, and Sharif Mohammed Ayedakew, who had been reportedly armed with pistols.
In a surprising escalation, safety operatives reportedly fired gunshots to instill worry and implement compliance.
Video evidences exhibits that the armed safety operatives had been standing by the poll packing containers as the scholars solid their votes. The operatives have additionally been accused of vandalizing election supplies and stopping college students from getting into the premises to solid their votes.
The controversy deepened when a number of establishments had been arbitrarily barred from voting.
Among them had been: University of Mines and Technology, Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Health and Allied Sciences and Ensign Global University, the host establishment of the elections, which was shockingly excluded from the method.
GRASAG management has condemned the intervention as pointless and alarming.
The unarmed law enforcement officials who GRASAG govt formally invited to supply safety had been sidelined by the armed safety operatives. According to the police they neither known as for reinforcement nor invited the nationwide safety operatives.
Two of the autos recognized on the non-public college are a white Nissan Hardbody pickup with registration numbers (AP 566-24) and a navy pickup (44 GA 33).
Students, who had been getting ready for breakfast earlier than the elections, had been reportedly taken unexpectedly by the aggressive arrival of closely armed operatives, creating an environment of worry.
Many have drawn parallels between this incident and the 2019 Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence, the place National Security operatives led by one DSP Samuel Azugu attacked civilians. At the time, former President John Mahama and civil society teams strongly condemned the assault.
Now, college students are questioning why such techniques are being deployed below Mahama’s administration.
In January 2025, President John Dramani Mahama directed the then Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, to launch an investigation into election-related deaths recorded throughout the 2020 and 2024 elections. The 2020 elections noticed eight fatalities from gunfire allegedly discharged by navy personnel within the Techiman South constituency of the Bono East Region.
An announcement signed by the Executive Secretary to the President, Dr. Callistus Mahama, addressed to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), famous that these incidents had left a long-lasting mark on the nation’s democratic course of.
Amid the outrage, college students are demanding an annulment of the election outcomes and a recent, truthful election held below impartial safety supervision.
Other calls for embody a full authorities investigation into the involvement of National Security operatives within the elections, punishment for these chargeable for voter suppression and intimidation and a dedication from the federal government to forestall military-style interventions in scholar elections.
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