Member of Parliament for Manhyia South, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, has slammed Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga over what he describes as an insensitive downplaying of the violence that marred the recent electoral rerun in Ablekuma North.
According to Baffour Awuah, describing the incident as “child’s play” was not only inappropriate but also undermines the government’s own promise of a reset in Ghana’s political culture.
“The Majority Leader’s choice of words was unfortunate,” he stated on the floor of Parliament.
“Describing what happened in Ablekuma North as child’s play does not reflect the spirit of the government’s reset agenda.”
The backlash came after Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga compared the chaos in Ablekuma North to the more severe violence he claimed to have experienced in his own constituency.
“I have experienced them in real violent situations in elections. The week before this last election, there were persistent gunshots in my constituency, and I couldn’t even come out of my house.
“Persistent—not what you people are doing. Not this child’s play at Ablekuma. This is children playing,” Ayariga remarked.
NDC’s Felix Kwakye Ofosu also accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of nurturing a culture of impunity over the last eight years—leading to repeated instances of electoral violence.
However Baffour Awuah was having none of it.
“Today, we are being told that what happened in Ablekuma North is child’s play, and it is coming from the Majority Leader,” he said during parliamentary session on Wednesday.
“A journalist was slapped, and we are saying it’s child’s play?
“A woman was assaulted, and we are saying it is child’s play?
“We are not surprised. Are we saying to the many children who are watching us that when we promised the people of this country reset, we were going to pursue retributive politics? This is not what you promised.”
