Former Member of Parliament for Madina, Aljahi Amadu Sorogo, has said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo wants to lift the ban on all social gatherings because he wants his party to be able to go for primaries to elect parliamentary candidates.

He also said the president intends to make it easier for the electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new register for this year’s elections hence the signals to lift the ban.

Mr Sorogo said on Accra 100.5FM’s Ghana Yensom on Tuesday, 26 May 2020 that if the ban on social gatherings is still in place, these activities by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the EC will not be possible.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has announced that stakeholder consultations are taking place on the way forward toward the easing of COVID-19 restrictions so that the social and economic lives of Ghanaians “can go back to normal”.

“I expect these consultations to conclude this week”, he said at a virtual national Eid celebration on Sunday, 24 May 2020, adding: “So that I can announce to Ghanaians a clear roadmap for easing the restrictions”.

“We have to find a way back, but in safety, for we cannot be under these restrictions forever”, the President said.

Ghana has recorded 125 new COVID-19 cases raising the figure to 6,808, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said on Monday, May 25.

The total number of recoveries has also shot up from 1,998 to 2,070.

Thirty-two people have died.

Mr Sorogo said: “Even at the time Muslims can’t go to mosque to worship, even when Christians can’t go to churches to worship, the figures are increasing so what is going to be the rationale to lift the ban on social gatherings?

“All of us are sing that the figures are increasing. There is no way we should lift the ban in the sense that the figures are increasing

“They only want to go for primaries to elect their flag bearer and parliamentary candidates. The president also wants the new register for the elections but he knows that with the ban on gatherings it cannot be done.”

But responding to this claim, the Eastern Regional Vice Chairman of the NPP Aljahi Omar Bodinga said the president will take a decision that is in the interest of Ghanaians and not his interest.

“In the whole world, Ghana is one of the countries whose measures to deal with the COVID-19 have been commended. We went after the virus, we didn’t wait for the virus,” he said.

He added: “The president listens to experts and I'm sure the decision he will take will be in the interest of Ghana and not him Nana Akufo-Addo.”