President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the security agencies who are enforcing the partial lockdown in Kumasi, Accra, Tema and Kasoa, will be tightening the noose on enforcement from this week.

The lockdown is part of measures taken by the Akufo-Addo government to mitigate the spread of the virus, which has, so far, killed five people out of the two hundred and fourteen confirmed cases with three full recoveries.

In his fifth address to the nation on the virus on Sunday, President Nana Akufo-Addo said: “I am fully aware of the disruptions to your lives occasioned by these measures”, acknowledging: “Your personal movements, way of life, the education of your children, your livelihoods have all been disturbed by this virus” but insisted: “Believe me, the measures are necessary if we are to free ourselves permanently of this pestilence”.

“So, fellow Ghanaians, I will continue, passionately, to appeal to you to observe prescribed social distancing and good personal hygiene to contain community spread. These enhanced hygiene protocols must become a part of our everyday lives. We must not abandon them.

“And, remember that the law enforcement agencies are going to increase their enforcement of the stay-at-home directive. Do not leave your homes other than for the essential, stipulated reasons”, he advised.

The President expressed his gratitude to the security agencies for their hard work in enforcing the lockdown.

“To the men and women of our security services, who have been enforcing the directives, by patrolling our streets day and night, conducting surveillance, snap checks and mounting roadblocks, we are deeply in your debt. It is these security measures that have created the basic framework within which our medical personnel are able to pursue contact tracing, testing and treatment of persons with the virus, whose implementation offers us the most secure means to defeat the virus.

“Reports I have received so far indicate that the police, military and other members of our security services have discharged their mandate with considerable professionalism. Furthermore, working with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, we see personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces involved in the clean-up of our drainage systems and of our markets.

“In the very few instances where members of our security agencies have employed the use of excessive force against the citizenry, in enforcing the restrictions on movement, the Inspector General of Police and the Chief of Defence Staff of the Armed Forces have taken steps to investigate such incidents, and, they have given me the assurance that, those found culpable, will be duly sanctioned. Thus far, the alleged wrongdoers have been withdrawn from the ongoing exercise. To enhance command and control, more senior officers have been deployed at the operational level, and each member of our security services participating in the exercise has been handed an aide-mémoire highlighting, essentially, the guidelines for the operation”.

He, however, expressed misgivings about the circulation of fake videos of alleged brutalities against the citizenry by the security agencies while enforcing the lockdown directives.

“I am extremely disturbed by the actions of a few, unpatriotic persons, who are deliberately passing off and circulating old videos of alleged brutality by members of the security agencies, largely of foreign origin, and presenting them as though they were new incidents by Ghanaian security personnel, which have occurred during the course of this past week. It is sad, it is unfortunate, and it must end. We should all be in this fight together, and there is nothing to be gained with widespread fabrication and distribution of such videos, whose sole aim is to create discontent and undermine the trust of the population in the men and women of our security services. Who gains from such conduct? Nobody in their right senses! The law enforcement agencies are determined to locate the originators of these anti-social acts”.

The President said: “The cynics question our capacity for the maintenance of discipline in this period, and in its aftermath; however, I am confident that we will prove them wrong. Ghanaians always rise up to the occasion, and we will do so again. United, we are going to win this battle”.

Additionally, he said: “I am privileged to be speaking to you on a sacred day of the Christian calendar, Palm Sunday, which ushers in the Holy Week to commemorate the passion and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Let His example unite all of us, Christians, Muslims, all Ghanaians, in our care for each other, and in our resolve to overcome this challenge. This, too, shall pass! 

“Together, let us ensure that the scourge of this virus becomes nothing but a temporary blip on the fortunes of our nation, and we will go on to realise the vision and aspirations of our forebears, who envisioned Ghana to be a free, democratic, prosperous nation, the beacon of freedom and justice, the Black Star of Africa, the harbinger of a new black civilisation in which the dignity and prosperity of black people everywhere are assured. May God bless us all, and our homeland Ghana, and make her great and strong”.