PRESS STATEMENT BY RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY PLATFORM (RAP) ON PLANS BY NPP TO USE MERCENARIES TO FORMENT VIOLENCE IN THE 2012 ELECTIONS Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the media. We thank you for responding to our invitation at such short notice. We have called you here this morning to share with you the contents of a shocking tape recording which has very grave implications for the peace and stability of this nation before, during and after the December 2012 elections. Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, it is common knowledge that since losing the 2008 elections on account of their poor performance in government, the NPP led by Nana Akufo Addo has persistently threatened violence should they lose the upcoming elections. Indeed Nana Addo and the NPP view a loss in the upcoming elections as an existential threat and have thus resorted to the use of threats of violence as a way of forcing Ghanaians to vote for him. We recall with a great deal of anguish Mr Akufo Addo’s infamous “all die be die”, “yen akanfuo” war chant at Koforidua where he exhorted party youth to do everything in their power to ensure his election as President even if it meant dying since death is death and it doesn’t matter how one dies. Not too long after these frightening statements Mr Akufo Addo told students at an event on KNUST campus that the NPP must win the elections “at all cost”. Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, taking inspiration from their leader, various leading functionaries of the NPP have made equally incendiary statements including Kennedy Agyapong who stunned Ghanaians earlier this year when he declared war and called on Ashantis and Akans in general to butcher Gas and Ewes. We acknowledge that Kennedy Agyapong’s murderous and genocidal statements are currently the subject matter of a trial before our courts as well as an investigation by the International Criminal Court. We also remember that Mr Samuel Awuku, a deputy communications director of the NPP called on NPP youth to arm themselves with disused pestles “woma funu” and be prepared to attack anyone who goes near a ballot box in the December elections. More ominously, Mr Awuku stated at the same forum that nothing short of a victory will be acceptable to the NPP - a point which re-echoes Akufo Addo’s at all cost posture. Ladies and Gentlemen, evidence available to the Research and Advocacy Platform makes it abundantly clear that these statements are not mere political rhetoric intended to incite party supporters to violence but rather the opening phase of an elaborate plan by Nana Akufo Addo and the NPP to plunge this country into total chaos and violence as a way of ensuring that when he loses the elections the victor is unable to govern a united, cohesive country. We have in our possession a tape recording in which Anthony Karbo then the National Youth Organizer of the NPP is heard spelling out the details of plans to hire Mercenaries from some neighbouring West African countries and beyond to “instigate” violence during the elections. Karbo is also heard audibly on the tape recording setting out how the NPP will through a campaign of lies, attack vital state institutions as part of a psychological war aimed at paralysing those institutions and rendering them incapable of dealing with the rogue elements who they have brought in. At this juncture Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to crave your indulgence to listen to this short recording after which we will return to the statement. For the avoidance of doubt Anthony Karbo said the following on the tape you just listened to. “Now, that’s what I’m working on now. I’m meeting with all the bad boys; some of them are NDC boys, some of these guys from Libya, some ayigbe boys who have come in from Togo: There are some guys who have come in from Benin and Liberia we are meeting. “So I’m just trying to consolidate that by second week of October I’m done with the whole country. We’ll be able to consolidate all the bad boys because what they are going to try to do is to try to instigate some fighting. “Our party people too they talk, blah-blah-blah but they don’t have people that now-now-now if they say there is something and call people; NPP people can’t call anybody so we just want to focus on that one. Ashanti region, Western region, Eastern region, all the five Akan regions, those are our strongholds and we need to protect that quickly.” Apart from plans for the EC, where he said weak batteries would be used for verification, Karbo reveals the plot against the security agencies: “By October ending, first week, second week in November, we need to start attacking particular national institutions; like police, like the military, the national security and BNI. We need to start attacking those institutions to make it known that we are aware they are going to be used in this elections,” he stated. Anthony Abayifaa Karbo, National Youth Organiser of the NPP, who has long declared that “if the NPP does not win the 2012 elections, Afghanistan” also said that; “We have to hit particular officers in the EC: Director of Operations, CID Boss, and this Amidu guy; these are key; some of the Brigadiers, ‘Ayigbe brigadiers: we need to attack them about secret meetings they held here, even if it is not true,” Karbo is heard telling die-hard party youth, adding “it’s part of the psycho,” war. The recording shows that as many Ghanaians try to assess the political parties on the promises they are making and whether they can be trusted to deliver on them or not, the NPP is plotting to create a state of insecurity in a bid to rally together five regions they consider their own, aimed at creating a state of fear and panic to make the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) party unpopular. Ladies and Gentlemen these are very serious revelations which require immediate action by relevant state agencies especially the security services. As part of efforts to help investigations into this matter the Research and Advocacy Platform will lodge a formal complaint with the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police Service and other state security agencies with a view to ensuring that Mr Karbo is brought to book. Having made this recording public it is our expectation that all Ghanaians, Civil Society Groups, Religious Leaders and members of Moral Society will condemn in no uncertain terms this dastardly attempt to undermine the peace and tranquillity which has prevailed in Ghana all these years. Ladies and Gentlemen, it is important not to take the contents of this particular tape in isolation as it only goes to reinforce the NPP’s track record of employing the services of thugs to attack political opponents during elections. Not too long ago, the embattled Kennedy Agyapong was heard in an interview confessing that he on the say so of the then Defence Minister, recruited a thousand macho men to intimidate NDC members in the Ashanti Region during the 2008 elections. Just two weeks ago, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, NPP MP for Asokwa was also heard on tape telling NPP members at a meeting that he smuggled 30,000 ballot papers and weapons into the Tain constitutency during the last phase of the 2008 elections in order to help the NPP rig the elections. The Research and Advocacy Platform believes strongly that the blame for this wicked plot must be placed squarely at the doorstep of Nana Akufo Addo because it is inconceivable that such a serious plot will be hatched by his Youth organizer and other officers of his party without his express instructions or at least approval as leader of the party. In light of this we urge him to speak directly to the contents of this tape as failure to do so will only undermine his credibility in the eyes of decent minded Ghanaians who are unwilling to thrust the destiny of this country into the hands of a group of people who see political power as an end and as a result want to win elections at all cost. We recall with regret how Mr Akufo Addo, refused to condemn and apologise for the ethnocentric comments of Kennedy Agyapong but rather presided over a situation where the latter was hailed as a hero by the NPP for calling on Akans to kill Gas and Ewes. Finally this revelation and all the other statements, actions and inactions of Mr Akufo Addo and other members of the NPP confirm conclusions drawn by major international bodies about the 2012 elections. In a report compiled in June last year, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the authoritative US think tank singled out Akufo Addo as the one Ghanaian politician whose conduct poses the biggest threat to the nations stability. Titled ‘Ghana: Assessing Risks to Stability’ the report notes on page 16 that “The role of the NPP leader and expected presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, will be crucial, and early signals suggest reason for worry. Akufo-Addo is desperate to mobilize support, and he has played the ethnic card, referring to the NPP as “We the Akans,” urging his supporters to “all die be die”—that is, they should be willing to die to ensure the NPP's victory…” Thank you very much for coming once again, you may now ask questions. Felix Kwakye Ofosu Convener, Research and Advocacy Platform