Editorial: Mr Interior Minister, Your Actions Should Speak Louder Than Words

Ghana witnessed one of the ugliest scenes in her history when what was supposed to be an ordinary parliamentary re-run in Ablekuma North Constituency last week Friday, turned chaotic. Madam Hawa Koomson, the immediate past Member of Parliament for Awutu Senya East was violently attacked by thugs at one of the polling stations.

Apart from Hawa Koomson, several other political activists were injured as a result of beatings they suffered at the hands of these thugs. After the regrettable incident that occurred in Ayawaso Wuogon constituency in Accra a couple of years ago, where people were shot and maimed, one would have thought that Ghanaians have learnt useful lessons but alas, this is not the case.

Political actors we will not mince words in calling as criminals, still see every bye-election as an opportune time to settle political scores. With the exception of Assin North, almost all the bye-elections we have held in the country under this Fourth Republic have turned violent. In the case of Hawa Koomson, we have read and also heard on air, some unpalatable comments from some of the leading members of the ruling party.

These party hawks claim some of their party members were either killed or maimed because of the actions of Madam Koomson. The question then is: if Madam Hawa Koomson committed an offence whilst her party was in power, what stops the current government from bringing legal action against her? The former Minister for Fisheries is certainly not above the laws of the land and should have been dealt with based on her alleged past sins, but this has not happened.

Instead, hooligans masquerading as party activists decided to attack her without the blink of the eye. Under our culture, we have high regards for women but these hooligans did not take this into consideration and rather attacked the lady, whose life was spared because there were police personnel around to rescue her.

As if this was not enough, a whole Superintendent of police also slapped a journalist without any provocation. If the journalist had also retaliated, he would have been arrested and probably charged with assaulting a police officer in uniform. As one television panellist noted, if this officer could misconduct himself in such a reckless manner, then one can imagine how he has been treating his subordinates.

This is the reason why in our editorial yesterday, we suggested to the police administration not to treat the behaviour of the said senior police officer as a mere misconduct, but should actually be charged under the laws of assault and put before the court of law. It is, however, refreshing that even before the police could act, the minister for Interior, Mohammed Muntaka, is assuring the nation that all those involved in the Ablekuma North re-run violence would be brought to book.

Myjoyonline.com reported yesterday that the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has vowed that individuals involved in the violent incidents during the Ablekuma North parliamentary rerun will be arrested and prosecuted, regardless of their political affiliations.

Speaking at the Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House on Monday, July 14, 2025 the Minister confirmed that video evidence of the attacks has been handed over to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) for immediate action.

“I have spoken to the IGP firmly on all the happenings of Ablekuma North and the videos have been forwarded to him. We’ve instructed him to act swiftly and bring the perpetrators to book. We are not going to condone wrongdoing, whether it involves people from within our party or from outside,” the news outlet quoted the minister as saying.

We believe the Interior Minister had made a firm commitment to deal with the situation and that what he is quoted as saying is not meant for the cameras alone. Ministers made similar comments in the past, but at the end of the day, they could not take any concrete action because they knew their party members were involved in the violence.

It appears to us that the peace Ghana is enjoying has been undervalued by some of her citizens. Because Ghana has not experienced any large scale war, which we pray to the Almighty One that it should never happen, we do not appreciate the peaceful atmosphere in the country. During the Liberia and Sierra Leon wars, limps of innocent children and women were chopped off whilst others were shot and killed like fowls.

Do we also want to experience this in Ghana? If the answer is no, then why are we always attacking each other in the name of politics knowing very well that these are some of the things that can lead to war? Well, for us at The Chronicle, we are waiting for the fulfilment of the promise that has been made by Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak with the hope that the outcome will sanitise the situation.

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