According to him, the statement was a wakeup call on members of the NPP to resist attempts by their opponents to intimidate them especially as the nation prepares for general elections in 2012.
He further explained that the “all-die-be-die” comment was an exhortation on his supporters to defend themselves due to the failure of the security services, especially the Police, to protect people during some by-elections held in the recent past, and should not be deemed as inciting members of his party to take up arms and inflict harm on others as being construed by some mischievous people.
It would be recalled that the NPP flagbearer came under a barrage of verbal artillery attack from members of the ruling National Democratic Congress and civil society alike, after he charged party members at Koforidua to rise up against any form of intimidation and defend themselves in the 2012 electoral ‘battle’ if the NDC tries any communist inferior tactics.
“I have not regretted nor will I ever regret those remarks. We are in a democratic country and everybody is entitled to his opinion and I know why I said it so I don’t see anything wrong with it. If someone disagrees with me, that is their opinion and that is what we want in Ghana, the fact that you do not share in my opinion does not mean everybody should also side with you. When I said “all-die-be-die”, I didn’t say we should go and fight, I meant if anybody attacks us, we will stand firm and face him squarely but we will not go and die. I know the NPP understood me that is why there has not been any violence since then,” he explained.
Speaking in an exclusive interview on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo on Thursday, Nana Akufo-Addo cited the violence that occasioned the Atiwa by-election in the Eastern Region, where some supporters of the NPP were reportedly attacked by some NDC goons and the National Women’s Organizer of the NDC allegedly drove through a make-shift road block. He accused the security services on that occasion of practicing selective justice and also lamented that foot soldiers and supporters of the NDC can even take the law into their own hands and get away with it.
“My “all-die-be-die” has become a big issue, even when teachers went on strike, they said “all-die-be-die” but since Professor Mills became President, two bye elections recorded bad scenes from intimidation to assault of innocent citizens, but in all of this, no action taken by the security services and government seems unconcerned,” he noted.
He was, however, confident that should the security agencies go about their job dutifully by arresting anyone who indulges in violent acts irrespective of their political affiliation, and ingrain in them that nobody is above the law, the NPP would have no reason to put into practice the “all-bie-be-die” battle cry.
Read more from the original source: