Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Asokwa in the Ashanti Region, has alleged that if someone was to be dealt with decisively by the security apparatus for creating fear and panic in the country, then it should be President John Evans Mills. He stated, “He is the number one fear monger”.

The Asokwa MP explained that the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, led by President Mills, had succeeded in creating an atmosphere in the country where victims of armed robbery and rape were unwilling to report their ordeal to the police for fear of being arrested and detained.

“If someone is creating fear and panic in the country, then it is President Mills and his NDC government who have succeeded in instilling fear into Ghanaians to the extent that the people are now afraid of reporting any mischief to the police,” he stressed. Hon. Jumah was speaking in an interview with journalists in Takoradi at the end of a parliamentary workshop on Local Government and Decentralization Reforms which ended yesterday.

He cited the bus sex saga in which 24-year-old Amina Mohammed was arrested and detained by security agents for disclosing the alleged mass rape on some radio stations in Accra.

He described the arrest of Amina as outrageous, particularly under the current democratic dispensation where all Ghanaians had the right to speak or report misdeeds towards them in order to seek justice. “Even if Amina lied, she does not deserve to be jailed, but it is because the NDC has given this crucial issue a political twist and some party leaders also accusing the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of being behind the whole saga.” He said.

According to him, the customs and traditions of most Ghanaians prevented them from disclosing causes of rape, particularly when they were the victims, so if some people were denying the mass rape story, it did not mean it was a sham.

He implored the security agencies to put measures in place that would enable victims of armed robbery and rape to muster courage to report such cases, rather than resorting to deepening their woes by detaining them.

The Asokwa MP, who expressed disgust about the arrest of Amina, charged President Mills and his NDC government of finding ways of dealing with recent rampant armed and highway robberies and stop the unfounded allegations that the NPP was behind such unwholesome activities.

He said in the previous NPP administration, there were reported cases of armed robberies, but the party did not accuse the then opposition NDC of masterminding such crimes but rather resourced the security agencies to fight the menace.