General News of Saturday, 12 October 2013

Source: peacefmonline

Samuel Sarpong does not deserve to be Minister - MP

Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency on the ticket of the NPP, Emmanuel Kyeremanteng-Agyarko, has stridently censured the Central Regional Minister, Samuel Sarpong, for countenancing the physical manhandling of a tipper-truck driver by his bodyguards.

Yaw Owusu, a 43-year-old tipper-truck driver, was allegedly beaten and detained by the police without bail on the orders of the Regional Minister after his truck collided with the Minister's vehicle.

The driver was said to be returning to Accra with his heavy loaded truck when he run into the Minister's vehicle, compelling the Minister's bodyguard and driver to take him through some rounds of beatings in the full glare of other road users on the Winneba-Kasoa road Tuesday afternoon.

Hon. Samuel Sarpong reportedly instructed that the truck driver remits the cost of damage done to his car.

Addressing the issue on Oman FM, the NPP MP cautioned his colleagues and Ministers in the country not to abuse their authority. He implored them to avoid exercising arbitrary powers over the Ghanaian citizenry, particularly those who ensured their victory.

He asked the Ministers not to turn themselves into “tin gods" just because of the authority handed over to them by the masses.

He was, therefore, of a strong view that Hon. Samuel Sarpong, under no circumstances, should have blatantly disregarded the law by failing to restrain his bodyguard and driver.

“We, who were voted for, and we, who pleaded with the electorates to give us power; when we get to that stage, we must not begin to think that we've become dummy gods," he said, stressing that the Central Regional Minister does not deserve his "title" because it must be such that he "command respect and honour that they will not even go ahead and break the law in your presence. I think it’s a national day of shame.”