NPP Members Only Protecting State Facilities – Blay Justifies Takeovers
The acting Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Freddie Blay has defended the lawless and violent seizures and takeover of state facilities by some members of the party.
According to Mr. Blay, not all the takeover of state facilities by NPP members must be condemned since in some cases the supporters are only protecting government agencies.
“In some cases, particularly places like the harbour, DVLA, Peduase Lodge, polling stations [sic] and so forth, in some cases the people had to go there to protect state property to ensure that looting stops,” Mr. Blay told Ghanaweb in an interview.
He added “I’ve been told that in some public offices and so forth, all of a sudden those who were working there have refused to come to work, not because they are being intimidated or being chased out, but they themselves have suspected that because of how they came there, or purely based on they being members of the party then in power, some people will chase them out and they’ve left those public places to the wind, to the weather and people have gone there to protect it.
“It’s not a question of condemnation, I’ve told you that in some instances I won’t condemn if they were there to protect property.”
Mr. Blay justifying his position said people were stealing cars and other items hence the need for party members to protect those facilities. He added that it is the right of citizens to stop people from stealing state properties.
“At the harbour people are stealing cars, people are carrying away items that should attract duties and so forth, containers being taken away without going through the right processes and so forth and I think people should be bold enough to say: stop what you are doing’”.
“It is your duty, my duty to stop anybody stealing even an individual property if you have good reason to know that what the person is doing amounts to stealing. If you see people stealing cars from the harbour, taking them away, are you suggesting that we should wait and go and call the police before they stop them?”
