Rev Avuletey, Deputy Volta Regional Minister
The Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Reverend Johnson Avuletey, has disclosed that the deployment of military personnel to the Volta Region, including the Ketu South constituency, was occasioned by a request made by the opposition National Democratic Congress’ Volta Regional Caucus in Parliament.
According to the Deputy Minister, it therefore beats his imagination that the same people will turn to complain about something they had requested for.
Speaking to the Daily Statesman on the sidelines of a National Road Safety Authority and the Ghana Journalist Association’s engagement in Ho yesterday, Rev Avuletey stated that the NDC Volta Caucus, led by Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, MP for Ho West, on April 14 2020, paid a special courtesy call on the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa, and requested military presence to beef up security in the area due to the influx of Togolese.
“I was in that meeting when they came. Their request was because they said their people were refusing to obey the Covid-19 protocols. This was after the first six cases were recorded in the region. The first six cases were Togolese who had come to Ghana. For emphasis, they were not Ghanaians in Togo who had come here; they were Togolese, and were deported after they had been treated,” he said.
He added that it is, therefore, “worrying that the chiefs in the region and these same people who requested for the military presence are now turning round to do politics with the issue.”
“This is why I have decided that every platform I get, I will speak about this,” he added.
Assurance
He disclosed that following the visit, the Minister assured them that he would forward their request to the appropriate quarters.
“Little did we know that the central government already even had such a plan in motion,” he stated.
He said, unlike other regions, the whole of the Volta Region has only 98 military personnel who are helping with security.
Rev Avuletey added that after the request from the NDC MPs, the Minister, together with the MPs, visited Aflao, a border community between Ghana and Togo, where the Minister spoke on a local radio station to educate the people on the matter.
He has, thus, called on the public to disregard the ‘noise’ going round about military presence in the region.
Old videos
The Deputy Minister also debunked the content of some videos that are being circulated on social media, purporting to be military molestation of voters’ registration applicants in the region. He said while, some of the content are pieced together, others are videos of old events which are not in any way related to the ongoing voters’ registration, saying the videos are being re-shared to basterdise the exercise.
He called on the chiefs and the people of the region to be assured that no qualified Ghanaian will be denied the opportunity to register in the ongoing registration, adding that the military are only interested in the protection of the country’s borders and not the registration exercise.
Source: Daily Statesman
