The Mahama 2024 Campaign has warned the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that it will not tolerate its attempts to pull down or obstruct the billboards of its flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama or parliamentary candidates of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
According to the Campaign team, it had become aware of the Chief Executive of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) pulling down a billboard of Mr Mahama, mounted by Alliance Media in Tema.
The Mahama 2024 Campaign in a statement on Friday, July 19, indicated that “This act is unacceptable and constitutes a needless provocative attempt to raise the political temperature in the country.
Alliance Media, a legally registered Ghanaian advertising business, has the rightful permission to mount Out-of-Home (OOH) and Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) sites nationwide. They diligently pay the required annual fees to the TMA and other assemblies. Therefore, it is utterly unacceptable for the TMA chief executive to tear down their legally placed billboard, which the Mahama Campaign rented and paid for.”
The Mahama 2024 Campaign noted that while they expected Alliance Media to take legal action against the TMA for this act, they want to warn the TMA boss and NPP that such needless acts, which lead to deliberate political clashes and violence, are detrimental to the growth of our democracy.
“We have noted a similar act in the Ablekuma North constituency, where the NPP blocked a billboard mounted by the NDC parliamentary candidate. And despite the NPP’s unwarranted provocation in various parts of the country, we note that institutions like the National Peace Council and religious and civil society organisations are watching,” they added.
The Mahama 2024 Campaign therefore cautioned that such acts will no longer be tolerated, adding that “If they persist, we will be compelled to instruct our members to take necessary measures to prevent such acts across the country.”
They urged the NPP to campaign peacefully and respect the rights of others to advertise their political candidates and messages.
“Violence and destruction of property have no place in our political discourse. As President Mahama noted in an opinion piece on Tuesday, there must be “peace and decorum in our political discourse, especially in the run-up to high-stakes elections such as those we face in December this year’,” the Mahama 2024 Campaign further stated.
