A call has been made for the arrest and prosecution of some leading members of the New Patriotic Party including its past immediate presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo.

According to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Ashanti, the high profile personalities of the NPP that should be arrested and prosecuted for very dangerous, inciteful and criminal statements are Nana Akufo Addo, Kennedy Kankam, Ashanti Regional Youth Organiser of the NPP, Hon. Kofi Jumah, NPP Member of Parliament for Asokwa constituency and Kennedy Agyapong, NPP MP for Assin North.

In a statement issued by the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the NDC in response to the call by the NPP for the removal of the Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon. Kofi Opoku Manu from office and be prosecuted, the NDC described the call as a political joke.

Recently, the Regional Minister was alleged to have asked members of the NDC in Ashanti to beat up any member of the NPP who will insult the presidency or the party. The statement, signed by the NDC Regional Secretary, Mr. Joseph Yammin, said as politicians, “we must learn to abhor any act or comments that are likely to generate violence and political unrest regardless of the personality involved.

“in the same spirit as the NPP’s call that the Hon. Minister’s statement is criminal, dangerous and morally reprehensible, we also make a passionate call on the security agencies to immediately cause the arrest and prosecution of some high profile personalities for making dangerous and inciteful statements”.

On the need for Kennedy Kankam’s arrest, the Ashanti NDC said he, on a Kessben FM programme in Kumasi on March 13 last year, strongly called on NPP youth to “take cutlasses and chase the NDC out of the Ashanti region to the Volta region”. Hon. Kofi Jumah was alleged to have, before the 2008 general elections, declared his constituency a no go area for the ND and strongly indicated that any NDC official, who attempted to campaign in his area will be brutalized.

On Kennedy Agyapong, the statement noted that on his own radio station of Ash FM in Kumasi, declared war against NDC officials and polling station agents who insisted on proper electoral procedures.

The statement said it was in abeyance to the war declaration that almost all NDC officials and polling station agents were brutalized and chased out of the various polling stations in the Ashanti Region.

It said Agyapong went on and physically attacked Hon. Joseph Yammin at Angel FM in Kumasi in the heat of the 2008 campaign. “Finally, the security agencies must arrest and prosecute Nana Akufo Addo for calling militants like him within the NPP to take the law into their hands and butcher NDC members”, the statement alleged.

The Ashanti NDC averred that the demeanour of the Regional Minister “in our political setting is that of responsible, peaceful and appreciable. As a gentleman of his stature, he has shown political maturity and apologized in that regard. “We therefore do not understand why the noisy NPP would take undue advantage of the statement and want to be heard for the first time in the New Year.

“As politicians, we must learn to abhor any act or comment that is likely to generate violence and political unrest regardless of the personality involved”, the statement, added.