Security Expert, Prof. Kwesi Aning, has said Mavis Hawa Koomson does not deserve a position of trust and must resign as Special Development Initiatives Minister.
His comment comes on the back of the Minister’s admission of firing gunshots at a voter registration centre in the Awutu-Senya East Constituency in the Central region.
“It is my hope that the President will ask Hawa Koomson to step aside or probably dismiss her,” the security expert said.
Madam Koomson, who is also the Member of Parliament for Awutu-Senya East, said she took the firearm – which she refused to identify – to the registration centre to protect herself.
But speaking to Evans Mensah on PM Express, Prof Aning said her actions were unacceptable, premeditated and put the lives of constituents at risk.
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The Director of Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre bemoaned the easy availability of guns in the country. This situation, he believes has influenced people’s decision to resort to violence at the least provocation.
Earlier on Monday, officials of the Electoral Commission closed down the Step to Christ registration centre in the Awutu Senya East constituency after gun-wielding men stormed the premises.
Witnesses said the men, numbering at least 15, arrived at the centre around 8:00 am and tried to sack some prospective voters.
Although Madam Koomson admitted to the act, she denied allegations that the men she visited the centre with were armed.
Prof. Aning in response said: “One would have thought a substantive Minister in a government that seeks to bring the issue of vigilantism to book; having spent substantial government and donor funds to develop a code of conduct, roadmap and for a Minister to behave like any other vigilante raises very disturbing concerns.”
He said Madam Koomson’s behaviour has tainted Ghana’s democracy.
“Hawa Koomson has done her party, constituents, and certainly the good people of Ghana a great disservice,” Prof. Aning said.
He, however, called on the Central Region Police Command to act with speed in investigating the violence that occurred in the Awutu-Senya East constituency.