The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Kodua Frimpong, has said the Ghana Police Service will assume full responsibility for security arrangements during the party's parliamentary primaries scheduled for Saturday, January 27.
He stressed that no private security personnel or machinery would be permitted at the election grounds, and anyone violating this directive would face consequences from the police.
Speaking in an interview with Asempa FM on Thursday, January 25, he stressed that adhering to this directive should not be challenging for party members if they prioritise the party's interests.
"We have handed over everything about the security of the elections to the Ghana Police Service. Anyone who attempts to disturb the elections will be dealt with by the police."
"There will be no private security or macho men. No aspirant has the power to bring any private security personnel to the election grounds,"he said.
He also insisted that the party's national leadership has maintained a fair approach to all aspirants participating in the primaries.
He stressed that the decision was made not to impose any candidate on the delegates, taking into account lessons learned from previous general elections.
"We have been very transparent in the processes so far. We, the national leadership took very painful decisions but important decisions in the interest of the party. We didn’t protect any sitting MP. We opened nominations for all. Even though there are some MPs that due to the work they are doing in Parliament, we should protect them but we didn’t protect anyone," he added.
The party has cleared 326 parliamentary aspirants for the January 27 primaries to elect its parliamentary candidates in constituencies where the party has sitting Members of Parliament (MPs).
Out of the total number of 373 aspirants, who filed to contest the primaries, after vetting, 29 are going unopposed, 11 were disqualified, two were referred to the National Executive Committee (NEC), two stepped down, one incomplete form and two did not show up for vetting leaving the qualified aspirants for the primaries at 326.
Credit: Ernest K. Arhinful