Ndebugri Punches Assin Domprem Terrorist

By Gifty Arthur

A firebrand member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. John Ndebugri, has strongly condemned the irate members of the party, who stormed the premises of the Police Headquarters to demand the release of the “on bail” embattled Assin North Member of Parliament (MP), Kennedy Agyapong out of Police custody.

He equally condemned Mr. Agyapong, who goes into history as the first Ghanaian to be charged with terrorism and suggested that the man now nicknamed “Assin-Dompem Terrorist” could be sentenced to death because the state has a “winnable” case against him.

He said the act deserved every condemnation since no one has the authority and power to throng the police station and other state facilities, causing damage to state properties in agitation for the release of a criminal suspect in lawful custody.

“I am NPP member but I think that the support is absolutely misguided. I don’t agree with the situation where somebody suspected of having committed a crime, he is arrested and party members go throwing stones at police. If we do that then if PNC member is also arrested, PNC people will also go there and throw stones, if in PPP, Dr. Nduom’s party somebody commits an offense, he is taken to the police station then people… I don’t think so, that is absolute lawlessness”, he said.

Lawyer Ndebugri who spoke to “Citi fm Eyewitness News” host Shamima Muslim, last Friday, from his hometown in Zebila in the Upper East said that though he is a member of the NPP, he did not subscribe to the hooliganism that was perpetuated by some of the party supporters last week Monday, resulting in the destruction of properties belonging to the Ghana Police Service and other private properties.

He said the behaviour which is becoming the order of the day is gradually eating into the nation’s political fabric and needed to be checked as its amount to lawlessness.

Mr. Ndebugri, described as a no nonsense politician, who joined the NPP from the Peoples National Convention (PNC), said that he wouldn’t mind if he is sacked from the party from speaking about such ills, adding, he will continue to speak his mind against wrong doings.

He argued that when suspected criminals are arrested, it is not the business of stone-throwing party members to thronged Police outfit and demand for the release of such people, instead the proper thing must be done by seeking the services of lawyers to take the matter up.

“It is lawyers who defend criminals or civil matters or whatever offences, not stone-throwing party members. I deprecate that absolutely and if the NPP will sack me for saying so I will say it all the time.

“ I don’t think NDC members have the right to go to the police station and interfere with police duty neither do PNC,NPP nor PPP, nor CPP, we must do things correctly so that this country will be in peace” , he said.

Mr. Agyapong’s arrest last Monday by the Police for calling for the killings of Ewes and Gas in the Ashanti Region because Ashantis in the Greater Region Accra were being prevented from registering going through the Biometric Registrations exercise.

The arrest led to some supporters of the NPP beseeching the premises of the Police Headquarters and causing mayhem and in the process, went on vehicle destruction spree. The actions also caused discomfort to ordinary Ghanaians, who had closed from work and were using the roads in the vicinity to get to their homes.

A news report by TV3 the following day showed 12 private vehicles parked at the Police headquarters as damaged, streetlights and traffic light were also pulled down while lorry tires were burnt on the street by the irate supporters who drummed and sang war songs to agitate for the release of Mr. Agyapong.

On the substantive issue, the former MP said as a lawmaker, the foul-mouthed MP aside being a parliamentarian had no authority to declare war on Ghanaians even if the biometric registration exercise was at its worst level, questioning if he was the Electoral Commission (EC).

He insisted that “nobody is a law unto himself and you cannot just go and say you are frustrated, frustrated about what? Kennedy Agyapong is a Member of Parliament out of the 230 members out of Parliament beyond that he has no other authority to feel frustrated because biometric registration is making problems, is he the Electoral Commission?”

On the matter of which law should be preferred against the embattled MP, Mr. Ndebugri said even though he will have wished that the case be closed considering the fact that Mr. Agyapong has been shaken enough with his short stay in the Police cells, he said the state could win with the charge of treason felony based on what he said.

“I think that treason felony with some effort, the state can press the charge of treason felony against Mr. Agyapong. It Is not my wish that that should happen but as a matter of law, I think that if the state does its work well they can press that charge against him because it is in section 182 of the criminal code and other offenses act”.

“It says that anybody who prepares or endeavors to carry out by unlawful means any enterprise which disturbs the executive power of the state in any matter of both the public and general nature commits that offence”, he quoted.

According to him, after listening to the tape he felt the MP went beyond boundaries. But he disagreed with the views that he resigns from Parliament. He also pleaded with the state prosecutors to withdraw the three charges against him, noting that what has happened to him these few days could serve as a lesson to him and others.

“I mean he has been taken in; he spent three days at the BNI. It has served notice on people who may want to behave the way the Honorable Kennedy Agyapong went, which is reprehensible, I have no doubt in my mind.

“You can’t declare war, you can’t say that when Kusasis are found in some parts of the country they should be beaten or killed or whatever. I mean it is not good to do that, not that it is good it is simply not right. He has been sent to court so the prosecution can go to court and enter and say nolle prosequi and end the case, that is all”, he said.