Minister for Defence, Dominic Nitiwul has responded to calls by the Minority in Parliament for probe into election violence in the just ended 2024 general elections saying that, the Defence Ministry, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives and other government officials should not be held accountable for election- related security.
According to him, when it comes to elections, the Security services handle all security issues, from the National to the district level hence the Police, which is the lead agency should be questioned on any breaches.
‘’Ministers of State, government officials including MMDEs, MPs cannot and should not be in charge of security when it comes to elections matter. It should be left in the hands of the security services led by the Police. So at the National Level it is the inspector General of Police who is incharge of security and the committee that oversees security, at the regional, is the regional commander and the district is the district commander’’.
Responding to the call by the Tamale North Member of Parliament, Alhassan Suhuyini on probing the deaths of individuals in the just ended election, Mr. Nitiwul asked the speaker to call on the Inspector General of Police and members of the National Elections Security Taskforce to respond.
‘’If the House thinks that they want to call the election security task force to come and brief this House, it cannot be the ministers or government appointees, because they have no role. You can only call the IGP and his team’’.
Mr. Nitiwul reiterated that, “In both the lead-up to and following the elections, the National Elections Security Task Force, under the leadership of the IGP, was responsible for maintaining order. If the Speaker or the House feels the need to summon security officials to brief Parliament, it must be the IGP and his team, as ministers and government appointees were not involved’’.