Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress has likened the actions of Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, the Tema West Member of Parliament during the election of the Speaker of Parliament to a thief stealing an item at the popular Kejetia Market in Kumasi.

Asiedu Nketia did not mince words in referring to Carlos Ahenkorah as a thief who deserved the treatment he got from some MPs.

Videos of the incident show some MPs including the NDC Chief Whip Muntaka Mohammed assaulting Carlos Ahenkorah.

Asiedu Nketia told Accra FM that the MPs who accosted Carlos Ahenkorah deserve special praise for helping apprehend a ‘thief’.

“When someone steals something like Carlos did. Carlos Ahenkorah is a thief and everyone has seen it. He stole something and run away with it. When someone steals something at Kejetia, don’t we chase after him and retrieve the stolen item? So, anyone who sees the criminal and allows him to escape is complicit in the crime”.

“As a citizen you have a duty to prevent crime. Those who chased Carlos Ahenkorah did very well. I congratulate them. Those who slapped him when he tried to chew the ballot papers also did very well because if we had not slapped him, he would have swallowed it.”

Asiedu Nketia dismissed claims that the actions of Muntaka and the other MPs amount to physical abuse.

He explained that the MPs took actions to prevent an illegality and that their actions could be classified as ‘application of minimum force’.

“It is not physical abuse because the person was committing crime and if you apply minimum force to prevent the crime. Physical abuse does not apply here. If you go to court, the person who attacked him to prevent the crime will be freed. If the person booted him and said it was a minimum force, he would be freed”.

It will be recalled that during the counting of ballots for the election of the Speaker of Parliament on January 7, 2020, Carlos Ahenkorah snatched some ballot sheets.

He subsequently defended his actions, insisting that he did it to protect the interest of his party, the NPP.