Information reaching GhanaReporters indicate that the embattled MP for Assin North, Mr Kennedy Agyapong, who is expected to be charged with treason by the Ghana Police, could face the death penalty if found guilty.
Mr Agyapong is under investigations for possible treasonable remarks after reportedly inciting tribal violence and declaring war.
Some legal practitioners have told GhanaReporters that if found guilty, Mr Agyapong would get at least 25 years even if he is spared the death penalty.
The NPP MP was yesterday transported in an armoured personnel carrier by the CID to BNI custody after NPP activists besieged the CID headquarters where he was being held.
Kennedy Agyapong, MP for Assin North
Reports indicate that angry NPP activists went on rampage blocking roads, throwing stones, and damaging property, after it emerged that Mr Agyapong would not be released.
Mr Agyapong’s commments have been condemned widely by several Ghanaians including Dr. Michael Kpessah Whyte, political analyst, who described the MP’s comments as “treasonable and “genocidal.”
Speaking to Joy FM, Dr. Michael Kpessah Whyte said the comments could land Mr Agyapong at the International Court of Justice for prosecution.
“I think that comments were genocidal in many ways,” Whyte said, citing the International Convention on genocide.
The Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies said: “It is genocidal in the sense that if you look at the International Conventions on genocide it clearly states that any attempt or act to destroy or cause bodily harm or more or less kill any particular ethnic, religious group of people is a genocidal offence for which the individual involved needs to be tried”.
Dr Whyte said the MP referred to specific ethnic groups- Gas and Ewes in his comments which made it even more worrying and dangerous given that country was inching closer to the December elections.
He wondered why the MP would make such ethnic explosive comments especially when there were different ethnic groups supporting the NPP.
He hinted individual could take on Kennedy Agyapong at the International Court of Justice even though “philosophically” he is against Africans being paraded at the Hague.
However, Counsel for Mr Agyapong, Mr Atta Akyea, has stated that his client meant no harm in declaring war over fallouts in the ongoing biometric registration exercise.
Atta Akyea told Joy News’ Evans Mensah his client was only “metaphorical” with his words and has no bad intentions.
Mr Akyea said comments by his client cannot by any stretch of the imagination be deemed to be treasonable.
Quoting copiously from the Constitution, Mr Akyea, who is also the MP for Abuakwa South, said “no amount of words will amount to treason” unless there is evidence he had concrete plans to execute his words.
He said Agyapong’s comments were just “verbal expressions” and no violent connotations must be put to them.
He said the comments were rather to admonish the police to be careful and deal with the violence characterizing the biometric registration process.
Meanwhile, Peacefmonline has published what is supposed to be Mr Agyapong’s comments, which has landed him in the bad books of the police.
Read the unedited article below:
Peacefmonline.com recaps what the Assin North MP said last week Thursday.
NPP firebrand, Ken Agyapong, has declared war in an interview on OmanFM in anger at what he perceived to be the aloofness of the police following the assault on the party’s parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma South, Ursula Owusu, by some thugs believed to be NDC activists.
He warned that the NPP will crush any “fake” police or army personnel in the coming elections.
A clearly enraged Kennedy Agyapong was emphatic that flashes of violence being experienced in the on-going biometric registration exercise specifically in the Odododiodoo constituency will not cease until the security agencies stamp their authority in the area. Whiles accusing President Mills of being a hypocrite, he slammed the James Town District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Franklin Addai describing him as “useless” for not taking steps to arrest the perpetrators of the brutal on Ursula Owusu.
“If he (Addai) continues to stick to his lies within twenty days, he would see what we would do to him…As for President Mills; he is such a hypocrite. He is behind the atrocities and senseless acts by Nii Lantey Vanderpuije,” he said.
The Assin North MP accused the National Chairman of the NDC, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, of rallying minors to register in the Biakoye District to partake in the biometric exercise, and called on minors in the Ashanti Region to also go out and register in their numbers.
“If the NDC wants to destroy the process, we would aid them in doing so…For those of them training some people as security personnel and dressing them in uniforms…I said this in Mantse Agbona…, if you dress up anybody in fake police outfit and present him, we will lynch him. If you dress up anybody in fake military attire, we will lynch him. This is war and I am telling Gbvelo Lartey that the war starts from now….Yes! I declare war today,” he said in anger.
He urged Ghanaians to wake up and resist the oppressor (NDC) and called on Ashantis who own shops to strike people who enter their shops with any weapon available.
“If you are an Ashanti or Akan and somebody enters your shop, use whatever weapon you have to hit that fellow. We would beat all Gas and Ewes in the Ashanti Region if this is how they want us to go. Again I declare war in this country and Gbvelo Lartey should come and arrest me. We would club any intruder who intends fomenting trouble with a machete and butcher them…,” he warned.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey has said that “law will deal with” Mr Agyapong if he is found guilty.
Click here to read that story: The Law Will Deal With Kennedy Agyapong – Jake Obetsebi Lamptey
[...] Meanwhile, Mr Agyapong has officially been charged with treason by the Ghana police. If found guillty, the Assin North MP could face the death penalty. [...]