General News of Saturday, 8 September 2012

Source: The Catalyst

Kennedy Agyapong Turns Guns On Mahama

Loose-Talking ‘Genocide’ MP On The Loose Again

That Kennedy Ohene Agyapong still talks on public platforms for, and on behalf of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is shocking. But this is attributable to one reason. The Akufo-Addo-led party endorses the nation wrecking conduct of the Assin North Member of Parliament (MP). Notorious for making dangerously explosive statements with well anticipated impunity, the NPP MP has now turned his guns on President John Dramani Mahama, after the death of President John Evans Atta Mills who was the main target of the loose-talking MP’s insults, carved in the most despicable foul language.

In its Wednesday 5th September 2012 edition, Daily Guide had this to report about Kennedy Agyapong as he descended on President Mahama and the NDC: “He [Kennedy Agyapong] said the NDC was made up of greedy bastards who were thirsty for human blood, insisting that president John Mahama was aware of the fiendish actions of his party but was always pretending to be a saint.”
For the Assin North MP to continue to have prime space and time on NPP’s political campaign platforms to continue to throw wild his acerbic tongue at his political opponents, speaks volumes of the opposition party’s sincerity in calling for truce in political discourse in the country. Anytime he opens his mouth, his conduct exposes the pretences and hypocrisy of the Akufo-Addo-led party, for paying lip service to the issue of decency of political language in public.
Kennedy Agyapong is currently in court battling the state, which is seeking justice against him for making comments bordering on genocide in the country. The ‘genocide’ NPP MP was hauled to court by state prosecutors to face criminal charges after he spent three days in Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) following his arrest for declaring war in Ghana on his private radio station, Oman FM, with a call on Akans to mass slaughter Gas and their counterparts from the Volta region (Voltarians).
Three Ghanaians, on behalf of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) have since petitioned the ICC in The Hague to take up the case and possibly prosecute the NPP MP on the international stage for his explosive comments that have the potential of turning Ghana into another Rwanda of our time if not dealt with decisively, firmly and conclusively.
Kennedy Agyapong premised his unwarranted attack and insults of President Mahama on a secret tape recording regarding a meeting held by NDC National Organiser, Mr Yaw Gyan, which he claims captures a plot by the ruling party to wreck havoc in the upcoming elections and blame it on the NPP, citing Nana Akufo-Addo’s ‘all-die-be-die’ mantra.
Kennedy Agyapong, who appears to be the source of the so-called secret tape, claimed he had been receiving threatening calls from persons he claimed were NDC, according to Daily Guide.
“Meanwhile, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, MP for Assin North has said on ash fm that the tape has once again exposed the NDC. Mr. Agyapong said portions of the tape indicated that his personal lawyer Ayikoi-Otoo was being monitored by the NDC goons who claim they had gathered that the astute lawyer closes from work at 10:00pm. He said the tape had proven that the NDC had intentions of causing trouble across the country during the polls,” the NPP newspaper reported.
It would be remembered that Kennedy Agyapong, after launching a blistering attack on President Mahama, hinted at NPP’s campaign launch rally at Mantse Agbonaa in Accra two weeks ago that he had a secret tape recording in his possession that he claimed would expose some evil deeds ofthe NDC and cause disaffection for it among the Ghanaian electorate in the 2012 elections.
Mr Yaw has however dismissed the claim by the NPP, describing it as mischievous. He explained that the said meeting was a briefing he gave party workers under him before dispatching them to the various regions to gather information about the effect of the newly formed National Democratic Party (NDP), which had just received a provisional certificate from the Electoral Commission (EC), on the NDC. He said the mission was already accomplished.
The history of politically-related secret tapes in Ghana is not new. A few months back, a so-called secret tape played by radio stations affiliated to the NPP, including Kennedy Agyapong’s Oman FM, had a voice purported to be that of Hon. Baba Jamal, then deputy minister of information, hatching a scheme with some so-called journalists who were being promised ‘heaven’ to favour the government and the NDC in their work.
In the 2008 elections, several secret tapes were played by Radio Gold, exposing some evil plots of the NPP to cling onto power at all cost. One of those tapes had a voice purported to be that of NPP MP for Asokwa, Hon. Maxwell Kofi Jumah. Another secret tape, with an unhealthy content, captured several voices of prominent NPP persons including Hon Atta Akyea in a meeting in the latter’s office.
The difference between the secret tapes played by Radio Gold and those emerging from NPP circles these days is that, like Yaw Gyan who admitted he held the meeting with the young men, which the NPP media is latching onto, Hon Atta Akyea has also authenticated the one that emanated from his office in 2008 but Radio Gold has been condemned by the NPP and these same media houses and media practitioners like Prof Kwame Karikari of the West African Media Foundation for playing the Atta Akyea tape.
It is mindboggling why the NPP continues to allow persons like the acerbic-tongue ‘genocide’ MP and party guru to remain its leading communicator whiles pointing accusing fingers at the NDC’s communicators as regards decency of language in the political discourse.
Political pundits see the latest move by the NPP as a decoy. Two politically savvy persons who separately spoke to The Catalyst but do not want their identities disclosed were unanimous that the NPP could be up to a the usual dangerous game. According to them, they believe that the opposition party, considering the violent track record of its political tradition, and its justification of “all-die-be-die,” is capable of planning to cause confusion in the country in the elections.
They suspect that the NPP, by the secret tape allegation, is only seeking to divert attention from itself when the ‘all-die-be-die begins, and called on the security services to be on the alert.