Ghana: Security Agencies Investigate Arms Smuggling Reports GHANA BROADCASTING CORPORATION RADIO 1 Thursday, November 9, 2000 The security agencies are investigating reports that offensive weapons are being smuggled into the country to foment political unrest before and after the elections. The minister of interior, Nii Okaidja Adamafio, who disclosed this in Accra, however assured Ghanaians that the security agencies will deal effectively with any attempt to scuttle the electoral process and destabilize the country. He said the outburst of a leading member of the NPP (New Patriotic Party), Kwamena Bartels, at a recent news conference, was as unfortunate as it was revealing in the sense that he and his party are leaving the public in no doubt that they are determined to resort to violence. They will also not listen to reason, let alone abide by the rules and conventions of the democratic game. Nii Okaidja said people like Mr. Bartels have their passport ready to leave the country after they have unleashed violence on Ghanaians as they have promised. On the Berekum incident, the interior minister said there is evidence of an established pattern where the perpetrators of crime are the first to rush to the press to give a distorted and sometimes fabricated account of an incident. He said there are examples of how often stories published against NDC (National Democratic Congress) supporters have turned out to be the direct opposite. Giving details, Nii Okaidja said last Sunday (5 October), an NPP parliamentary candidate, Nkrabea Effah-Dartey, went to the Chris FM studios at Berekum and made a highly inflammatory speech alleging, among other things, that a man from Techiman had been beaten up by NDC supporters who thought he was an NPP member and that this person was on admission at Berekum Holy Family Hospital. He also alleged that a group of people called Nima Boys were in Berekum town intimidating and assaulting people with guns and knives. Nii Okaidja said as a result of these inciting pronouncements from the NPP candidate, NPP supporters returning from a rally at Akrofuo decided to take vengeance and ambushed and attacked NDC supporters who were also returning from a rally at Senase. NDC pick-ups and other vehicles, on which supporters were traveling, were severely damaged. The interior minister said if there is any group that has a history of political violence, it is the NPP, and it stretches from the pre-independence days of the NLM (National Liberation Movement) and the Action Troopers (words indistinct) to the gangs of thugs they hired to throw stones at the presidential convoy. He stressed that the government has no intention of abdicating its responsibility to maintain law and order and ensure the safety of all persons during the election period and beyond. Therefore, it has neither the time nor the measure to pander to the whims and caprices of persons who indulge in political sentimentalism