Mahama cannot intimidate us, we are not cowards – Obiri Boahen warns over ‘do or die’ comment

• Nana Obiri Boahen says John Dramani Mahama cannot intimidate NPP members with ‘do or die’ in 2024

• He indicated that they are not cowards but men

• Mahama during his thank-you tour noted that the 2024 elections will be a ‘do or die’ affair at polling stations

Nana Obiri Boahen, Deputy General Secretary of the governing NPP, has sent a warning to former President, John Dramani Mahama and his supporters that, they should not attempt to intimidate NPP with their threat of a ‘do or die’ affair in the 2024 general elections.

According to him, the NPP has the men, therefore, John Dramani Mahama and his followers should not conceive that idea because there are men in the NPP and not cowards.

Nana Obiri Boahen‘s comments come after the former president stated that the 2024 election is going to be a ‘do-or-die’ affair at the polling stations.

Mahama said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has learned lessons from the 2020 general elections.

“This current president has made elections life and death for him, he uses his delta forces and invisible forces enrolled in the security agencies.

“You see some military and police officers and ask whether these are indeed officers. They wear earrings and all sorts of things and you can’t tell whether this is a police officer or a soldier. We know they have infiltrated the security with some of their people.

“Look at what happened at Techiman South, the ways they shot at the crowd, it was intended to kill people. We hope that the next elections we won’t see scenes like that again.

“We have learnt our lessons from happenings during the 2020 polls. The 2024 elections will be won or lost at the polling station. It will be do-or-die at the polling stations. The right thing must be done during the polls. We will win the elections at the polling station and won’t wait for collation centre results nor petition the Supreme Court if aggrieved,” the former president said during an interview on Techiman-based Akina FM on Tuesday, September 7, 2021.

Reacting to this, Obiri Boahen told Accra-based Joy FM that:

“This issue of ‘do or die’, I believe that we need to tread cautiously. I wasn’t expecting the former president to be drumming home, this issue of ‘do or die’. In fact, it is quite dangerous, honestly speaking. It is quite dangerous in the sense that during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-elections, the NDC came up with this slogan of ‘do or die, do or die’ and what happened eventually is part of history, a lot of casualties.

“Certainly, they cannot intimidate us, certainly not, mark my words certainly not. We’re all prepared to protect and defend the democratic credentials of this country, however, if they want to push us to the wall, to humiliate us and bully us, that cannot be possible.

“We are not cowards! We are not cowards! We are men,” Nana Obiri Boahen warned. “I am saying that we are all brothers and sisters and we must make sure that, this country put up its democratic credentials but to intimidate, to harass, to bully and to say that you are going to win; fair is foul and foul is fair [attributed to William Shakespeare], that can never be possible.”