The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been accused of flouting a Ghana Education Service (GES) directive banning political activities on campuses of Senior High Schools across the country.
Executives of the National Democratic Congress in the Savannah Region say despite the October 2018 ban, the NPP has branded the entire Damongo Senior High School ahead of the hosting of the party’s constituency primary this Saturday, September 28.
The GES last year warned against using second cycle students in partisan politics and using their facilities for political activities, noting the state institution is non-political.
It thus directed all Regional and District Directors of Education and Heads of SHS “to ensure that all school campuses and students are not used for political activities without authorization” from the GES.
The GES issued the directive on the back of allegations that the headmaster of Tempane Senior High School in the Upper East Region, allowed a political activist, Joshua Akamba, to address students on the school’s campus.
Despite the directive, the NPP is set to host its primary at the Damongo SHS but it is unclear if the party has secured the necessary approval from the GES.
As of Thursday, the school campus has been branded with ribbons of the NPP colours; red, white, and blue.
At the entrance is a huge banner of one of the parliamentary aspirants of the party, Samuel Abu Jinapor, who is also the Chief of Staff at the Presidency.
Trees within the school compound have also been branded NPP colours, an act that has angered the National Democratic Congress.
At a news conference Thursday, the Savannah Region Communications Director of the NDC Malik Basintele accused the NPP of flouting the directive, saying what the NPP has done at the Damongo SHS is “unfriendly of Democratic practices of the country”.
He argued that authorities of the school denied the former President John Dramani Mahama access to the school February this year, when the NDC sought permission to host the party sympathizers there.
The NDC leadership wondered what has changed to have allowed the NPP to host its constituency parliamentary on the school campus.
“The G.E.S issued a directive in August 2018 through its Head of Public Relations Cassandra Twum Ampofo not to allow political activities on second cycle institutions”, Mr Basintele revealed.
“In February this year, former President Mahama wrote to the school requesting to use the venue for his campaign but denied access 24 hours to the program by school authorities referencing the GES directive. Today, same people in authority are failing to implement same directives”, he stated.
He quizzed why the venue has been released to the NPP for their Parliamentary primaries.
“The same Damongo Senior High School is in full NPP gown today as though the school had been auctioned to the NPP as a branch of their headquarters in Damongo”
He called on the GES to immediately sanction both the school authorities and the NPP candidate Abu Jinapor.
Meanwhile, the Savannah Region NDC communication officer was invited by the regional police commander immediately after the press conference.
“Just at the end of the delivery, the regional police commander asked we report at the police station and when we got there, he told us they have information from NPP we were planning to vandalize their decorations at the venue” he told 3news.com.
He said they denied the allegations but were warned by the Region Police Headquarters, “that they will be held responsible if a single poster goes missing”.
By Zubaida Ismail|3news.com|Ghana