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Ghana's former High Commissioner to India, Sam Pee Yalley has called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to hasten his decision regarding the shooting incident that occurred at a voters' registration center in the Awutu Senya East constituency in the Central Region on Monday, July 20, 2020

"I don't expect President Akufo-Addo to be silent on this matter or waste time in handling the issue at all. Because as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, he should expect more of such radical incidents in the upcoming elections should he not openly condemn the incident and also make sure the perpetrators are brought to book," he stated.

To him, the kind of language the president uses in addressing the matter will indicate the level of tolerance or intolerance that will erupt in the forthcoming December polls.

Speaking on UTV's 'Adekye Nsroma' newspaper discussion show, Sam Pee Yalley disclosed that his investigations and studies concerning the voters registration exercise shows "there are lots of challenges and loopholes in the ongoing system".

The former diplomat stressed that the minister was wrong to carry a weapon to a polling station just to go and investigate a tip-off.

"... How can a minister of state carry a loaded weapon to a polling station claiming she simply went over there to investigate an unfolding incident? If she felt there was simmering tension in the area, then she should have alerted the appropriate authorities in charge and not take the laws of the country into her hands; firing warning shots anyhow. Someone who is a lawmaker!" he charged.



Warning gunshot

Madam Hawa Koomson, MP for the Awutu Senya East and Minister for Special Development Initiatives admitted she fired a gun at a voters' registration centre in her constituency.

She explained that none of the men in her company at the time of the incident was armed when they got to the centre.

“I fired the shots myself,” she said.

According to the Special Development Initiatives Minister, she took the firearm – which she refused to identify – to the registration centre to protect herself.

The MP said she had gone to the registration centre because she heard her opponent had gone against the law to bus people from other places to register.