Don’t Use Soldiers As Citizenship Inspectors – Kwaku Azar To Military Command
Lawyer and Professor of Accounting, Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar has waded into the controversy regarding the dispatch of soldiers in parts of the Volta region as the Electoral Commission begins the voters' registration exercise Tuesday.
According to him, citizenship is a matter of law and cannot be determined by another individual.
It comes after some residents of Ketu South in the Volta region lament the presence of soldiers in the constituency.
The governing party’s legislator K.T Hamond has said: “the military is at the Aflao border to make sure you vote if you are a Ghanaian and if you have the constitutional right to vote. That’s all there is. They are not electoral officers but they are peacekeeping forces. They are keeping the peace.”
But reacting to the development, the renowned academician wrote on Facebook soldiers must not be used as citizenship inspectors.
“Comity requires that if nobody is questioning Mr. Hammond’s citizenship then he too should not be questioning the citizenship of others. I find his statement and attitude frightening and deeply disturbing. I reject it in its entirety. I also call on the military brass not to allow its men and women to be used as citizenship inspectors!! We are a peaceful nation because we live in peace. We must keep it that way”.
He also condemned the utterances of the Adansi Asokwa MP.
Below is the full write up
We are being told by K. T. Hammond that “the military is at the Aflao border to make sure you vote if you are a Ghanaian and if you have the constitutional right to vote. That’s all there is. They are not electoral officers but they are peacekeeping forces. They are keeping the peace.”
I repeat;
Citizenship is a question of law. Neither K. T. Hammond, the military nor anyone can decide who is or who is not a citizen of Ghana.
I have cited the case of Bonito Olympio whose father was Sylvanus Olympio, a former President of Togo.
The NLC attempted to deport him to Togo only for the then Justice Wiredu to hold that both Bonito and Sylvanus are Ghanaians by descent.
Comity requires that if nobody is questioning Mr. Hammond’s citizenship then he too should not be questioning the citizenship of others.
I find his statement and attitude frightening and deeply disturbing. I reject it in its entirety.
I also call on the military brass not to allow its men and women to be used as citizenship inspectors!!
We are a peaceful nation because we live in peace. We must keep it that way.
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