The man internationally recognized as the winner of the disputed electoral results in La C\u00f4te d’Ivoire, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, has voiced out his unflinching support for the use of legitimate force if need be in removing Laurent Gbagbo from power.
\nPatrick Achi, Spokesperson for the Government of Alassane Ouattara, stated this position on Thursday morning. He was speaking in an exclusive interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM\u2019s Kokrokoo Morning show.
\nAccording to him, the political impasse in La Cote D\u2019Ivoire has risen to this level because embattled President Laurent Gbagbo has been given too much liberty to operate.
\nAsked whether he felt that \u201clegitimate force\u201d will eventually be used, Mr. Patrick Achi replied, \u201cWe hope so, because now, people are been killed every single day. We have already almost 250 dead\u2026,\u201d he said.
\nMr. Achi who expressly voice out support for military action if mediation fails despite its likely potential consequences, pointed out that even now innocent lives are being lost whiles Gbagbo still remains President.
\n\u201cPeople are already dying every single day. You want them to keep on dying all the time?… You Ghanaians, you cannot say that because you know what I\u2019m talking about. You went through that and thanks to God you are out of that now because of democracy\u2026Everything has to be done to bring democracy since that\u2019s the lasting way for peace\u2026If people were not being killed every single day, maybe we could wait. But even that, when the country is in such a deep depression like that, poverty has reached a level where it is; you do not have education, you do not have health any more people are dying every day in the hospital without medication?…People are being killed every day, that\u2019s what we want to stop\u2026Is this the way of living? Would you accept that?\u201d he asked.
\nAnswering questions on a wide range of issues, Mr. Achi who is also the Minister for Economic Infrastructure, had this to say when asked about the arrest of some five Ghanaian nationals by forces said to be loyal to Alassana Ouattara on suspicion of being mercenaries.
\n\u201cI have to check up on that. First of all, this is not our people, when you say our people it\u2019s assumed that Alassane Ouattara has an army and this army is arresting people. No, We are not! We have a civilian troops\u2026What just might have happened, I don\u2019t know but I have to check is that a lot of Liberians mercenaries killed people in Abidjan\u2026Maybe when they grap people and they are speaking English, only English, they think that these people are Liberians. Maybe they don\u2019t have papers with them and they are confused between Liberians and Ghanaians. So we have to check it out, but I don\u2019t think that they will arrest Ghanaians because these Ghanaians living here, they are our brothers, we are friends and there\u2019s no need for us to arrest them. We want this country to be back to peace\u2026so we\u2019re going to check this matter and if it\u2019s true, these people must be freed. You cannot arrest them,\u201d he stated.
\nThe five, accused of acting as mercenaries for embattled self-acclaimed president, Laurent Gbagbo include Johnson Agbeko, Atsu Agbeko, Kobina Agbeko, Awana and Abdulai. They are reportedly being held in custody in the Ivorian town of Boake.
\nIn answer to whether Cote D\u2019ivoire will see peace once Laurent Gbagbo is not in the picture, Mr. Ouattara\u2019s spokesperson said, \u201cthere will be peace forever.\u201d
\n\u201cThis is the only thing we\u2019re waiting for, because what has brought the hatred and divisions here are the things he\u2019s done. Now if you were listening or somebody is living here, you could ask him to look at what\u2019s on T.V that he has monopolized. You will see that he\u2019s threatening Ghanaians, Nigerians, Burkinabe\u2019s living here saying that if your country does that we will kill you\u2026This is not a peaceful way of running the country\u2026He is the threat not only for Cote D\u2019ivoire but for whole sub-region\u2026This election was supposed to be held five years ago in 2005, we postponed this election 6 times because Gbagbo was not ready. Now we held this election, he lost and says I don\u2019t wanna leave, now what do you want to do with that? Can we keep on going like that?\u201d he asked rather angrily.
\nSource: Kwadwo Asante\/Peacefmonline.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The man internationally recognized as the winner of the disputed electoral results in La C\u00f4te d’Ivoire, Alassane Dramane Ouattara, has voiced out his unflinching support for the use of legitimate force if need be in removing Laurent Gbagbo from power. Patrick Achi, Spokesperson for the Government of Alassane Ouattara, stated this position on Thursday morning. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n