A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legal team, Victor Kojoga Adawudu, has suggested that former Awutu Senya East Member of Parliament, Mavis Hawa Koomson, could have avoided the assault meted out to her during the Ablekuma North election rerun.
The rerun, held across 19 polling stations on Friday, July 11, was marred by chaotic scenes as thugs stormed voting centres, attacking several people, including journalists.
Hawa Koomson, the immediate past Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, and Deputy National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Chris Lloyd Nii Kwei Asamoah, were among the victims.
Reacting to the incident on Accra-based Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Monday, July 14, Adawudu, who is a legal practitioner, said the former lawmaker, who he claims is synonymous with election-related violence, made people uncomfortable with her presence.
According to him, she should have left the area the moment people began protesting and questioning why she was there.
“It was unfortunate to say, but when she got there, if you look at the videos, the people started protesting that ‘we don’t want you at the polling station.’ Intelligence should have told her, ‘No, you have to leave,’” he stated.
“From the video, you could see she was spraying something like pepper spray. I don’t know whether it was pepper spray. People are saying it was, but somebody told me it was in self-defense. But why would you even go to a polling station holding pepper spray? What was the motive?” he questioned.
Meanwhile, the rerun, which saw the NDC’s Ewurabena Aubynn emerge victorious, was held in areas where results from the 2024 elections were not certified by Electoral Commission officials due to earlier violence.
