COVID-19 is Worsening, yet schools have become ‘hotbeds’ for NPP Political Campaign – NDC

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has criticized the Akufo-Addo government’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, as the country surpasses 24,000 in COVID-19 infections.

According to the NDC, the government has shown incompetence in handling the situation, yet is drifting towards politicising the situation in their favour.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Monday, 13th July 2020, the NDC’s National Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi accused the government of doing little to curb the spread of the virus.

He said the Akufo-Addo government ‘prematurely’ reopened schools without taking necessary precautions.

According to Sammy Gyamfi, the NPP government is rather campaigning in these schools, instead of ensuring the safety of the students.

 “The premature reopening of Senior High Schools by President Akufo-Addo without mass testing of students, teachers and workers as well as the failure to put in place and enforce appropriate safety measures in the reopened schools, which is leading to the spread of the virus among SHS students, is yet another major setback for our COVID-19 fight," he told the press.

“Today, it is sad and annoying to note that apart from the disregard for our COVID-19 safety protocols in our schools, the reopened schools have become centres, in fact, hotbeds for political campaigns by the ruling New Patriotic Party as was seen over the weekend when their National Youth Organiser, Henry Nana Boakye, led a team to campaign in some senior high schools in the Ashanti Region,” he added.

He also questioned the rationale behind disallowing parents from visiting their kids in schools, but permitting Party and EC officials to enter freely.

“Is it not cruel that at a time 10 of the reopened senior high schools have recorded infections on their campuses and parents have been prevented from visiting their wards, as a so-called COVID-19 prevention measure, President Akufo-Addo has opened the same schools for his party, NPP, and the Electoral Commission, who prioritise political power than human lives to go in there and engage in shameful political activities, which have the tendency to endanger the lives of our innocent SHS students.”
 

He therefore opined that the government's 'unconscionable and reprehensible' antics totally disregards lives of students hence "must be condemned by all voices of conscience.”