Presidential aide, Nii Lantey Vanderpuiye has dared functionaries of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to follow up with threats of registering in the Odododiodoo constituency if they are ready to stand the wrath of the constituents in the ongoing biometric registration exercise.
This follows the ultimatum given him by the General Secretary of the NPP, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, to stop preventing people from registering in the area.
Mr. Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, gave Nii Lantey Vanderpuiye up to the close of today (Thursday) to desist from preventing members of the NPP from registering in the ongoing biometric registration exercise.
Nii Lantey Vanderpuiye who is also the ruling National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Odododiodoo is alleged to have prevented some people who are not resident in the area from registering on Wednesday.
Speaking to XYZ News on Thursday afternoon, Sir John said “we call on the police and everybody to ensure that law and order prevail otherwise we will do whatever is in our power to ensure that our people are protected so Nii Lantey Vanderpuiye should not think that he has the monopoly of violence and therefore through violence he would stop people from registering.
“We give him up to today, if he does not mend his ways, he will meet his match in this area. The same method that he is using to prevent people from registering, we will use and employ the same method… we will do whatever it takes for our people to register.”
But in a swift rebuttal, Nii Lantey has described the statements as “empty threats.”
Nii Lantey told Radio XYZ 93.1 FM that the polling station agents of the NDC will continue to work despite the pressure from the opposition NPP and denied preventing anyone from registering in the area.
“No one has physically stopped anybody from registering. The people of Odododiodoo have said that at the end of this registration exercise, they will want the register [for the] Odododiodoo constituency to be authentic.”
He said the people are only practicing what the electoral laws posit: that registrants should be resident in the constituency before they are eligible to vote.
“If Owusu Afriyie says he is a man, he should just come to the constituency and just say that he wants to force himself to register. He and Kennedy Agyapong and all those who are making noise - Sammy Awuku and all those people - if they are men and the noise they are making are not empty noises, they should come to the constituency and say that they will register by force. It is not Nii Lantey Vanderpuiye, it is the people,” he warned.
He said, as a Ghanaian, he will not sit idle for anyone to trample on the electoral laws of the country for political expediency.
“I also want to sound a warning to Sir John and his people, that me, Nii Lantey Vanderpuiye, can never be intimidated,” he concluded.