In a direct response to the Flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s “all die be die” comments, the Tema branch of the former 31st December 1982 revolution inspired-United Cadre Front, has declared that its members are ready to defend the nation’s democracy “at the peril of their lives.”
The group has been provoked by Nana Akufo-Addo’s insistence that he and his party would match boot for boot any acts of intimidation by the NDC in the 2012 elections, declaring at two different meetings in the Eastern Region, on Tuesday February 8 and Thursday February 10 that “All die be die”. His comments have since sparked both condemnation from the NDC and acclamation from the NPP.
In a statement, the United Cadre Front described as embarrassing and insulting what it said were attempts by loyalists of the NPP Presidential aspirant to justify Tuesday’s comments.
The Spokesperson for the UCF, Nana Yaw Amaniampong, told Citi News they will readily defend the Constitution of the land. “What we mean is what our National Anthem and our Constitution calls on us to do. It is to defend the Constitution at the peril of our lives and it is legitimate to do so as long as it is in defence of the Constitution and the freedom and the rights of the people to determine who rules the country”.
“Nana Addo was not talking about the same thing. Nana Addo was making an appeal to the Akan ethnic grouping that “all die be die”. And we are saying that this country has many ethnic groups so if you call on one ethnic group to tell them to stand up and that all die be die, you are virtually inciting the people and promoting ethnocentrism. It is not good for building our nation and so if he wants to incite one particular group of people against the rest of the nation, it will not yield” he said.
Mr Amaniampong told Citi News only the ballot will continue to decide who leads Ghana under the nation’s democracy and not through vandalism or show of brutal force.
“It is not the brave or the one who is most violent that will get to lead this country. At the end of the day, every single Ghanaian moves freely to a polling centre to cast his vote and goes back home to wait for Electoral Commission to announce.
We are not going out there to die in order to elect a President which is what he sought to preach. So what the Cadres Front is saying is that, we don’t elect leaders and substitute their election with our lives. We elect leaders in a civil manner that has been done in this country since 1992” he noted.