You are here: HomeOpinionsArticles2012 04 18Article 236216

Opinions of Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Columnist: Sarpong, Justice

Kill All Ewes In The Ashanti Region, Not So Fast

Sarpong, Justice

The acerbic-tongue NPP member of Parliament from Assin North, Kennedy Agyapong has
been accused of imploring Asantes in Ashanti region to kill Ewes and Ga's during a
radio programme from Oman Ghana FM, a radio station he owns with this provocative
statement;
"According to him, he has declared war on all Ewes living in the Ashanti region, and
that the NPP activists in the region should attack Ewes with machete and cutlasses.
He warned that all security personnel who will try to keep the peace in the region
will be lynched."

Let get this clear out of the way, no Ewe or Ga is going to lose their life in
Ashanti region because Kennedy Agyapong says so. If Agyapong wants to start a
killing field, he should start it from his Assin constituency by being the first to
draw blood by killing an Ewe or Ga because Asantes will not do any Politician's
bidding for them to live a life of luxury whilst the poor Youths sacrifice their
lives for them, it is not going to happen, at least not from Ashanti region.
Political differences should not be a reason to start killing ourselves as
Ghanaians.
I can understand Mr Agyapongs frustrations when the President of the Republic utter
idiocies like "I am not a Policeman" when he has the power to stop everything that
is going on in the country but has cocooned himself at the castle and like the
proverbial monkey, sees nothing and hears nothing, but that is no reason to plunge
the country into a tribal war. Ghana has carved a name for itself as an oasis of
tribal stability in the sub-region of West Africa and we intend to keep that
enviable title intact regardless of the provocation going on by NDC.

The genesis of the the Odododiodoo debacle was started by his own Aide, Nii Lantey
Vanderpuije when he challenged NPP to come to Odododiodoo if they are men and then
organized his supporters to look for NPP supporters to beat up. We all saw the
picture of these NDC hoodlums with guns, cutlasses, pickaxes and other weapons
marching to the Kantamanto areas where there are supposedly most of the Akan traders
live or have their stores. It was Nii lantey Vanderpuije who started disrupting the
ongoing biometric voter registration exercise who instructed his NDC polling agents
to challenge or stop anybody with Akan name from registering at Odododiodoo. This
was during the second phase of the biometric registration exercise but according
to an "NPP polling agent who gave his name as Hassan, was used by Nii Lante’s agents
during the phase 1 of the registration exercise resulting in non-Gas being prevented
from registering, whilst those lucky enough to
register had their cards seized on the orders of Nii Lante Vanderpuije."

Knowing full well that the Kantamanto and Railway Police Station registration
centres are perceived NPP strongholds, NDC polling station agents continue to
challenge non-Ga person who tried registering at these centres. As opposed to the
first phase of the registration exercise where Nii Lante Vanderpuije’s agents
forcibly seized voter ID cards, EC officials as mandated by law temporarily took
custody of voter ID cards.
Nii Lante has recruited close to 80 thugs to prevent Akans from registering at
Odododiodoo. Now Odododiodoo constituency has become a NO GO AREA for anybody with
Akan name and instead of President Mills condemning such behaviour by dismissing
Lantey from his Castle job and setting a good example for others to follow, this
father for all President who we should look up to for guidance and wisdom has failed
to provide leadership by shieking his responsibilities as the President of this
country. Is he not the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces which the Police is an
intergral part? You can say all you want about Rawlings and Kuffour but we did not
see this kind of a lawlessness in the country during their Presidencies and Mills
will have the blood of all the innocent people who have lost their lives or will
lose their lives because of his abdication of his Presidential duties. All he has to
do is to dismiss Vanderpuije from creating this problem at
Odododiodoo constituency from his Castle job and this "muu muu" Mills can't even do
that?

This country is dangerously on the precipice of a tribal war because good people
like this Kojo Asante who has condemned Kennedy Agyapong has no cojones to tell the
slow and clueless President Mills to dismiss his Aide Vanderpuije from his Castle
position which has embolden this common thug to stop Akans from registering to vote
at Odododiodoo.
Now some stupid NDC leaders are talking of stopping some Ghanaians from coming to
their territories as if some Ghanaians need visas to go to certain places.

If the Police continue to engage enforcing the law selectively whilst NDC hoodlums
arrested are set free from orders from above whilst a breathing from an NPP is now a
crime, then the country should brace itself for speechies such as the one attributed
to Kennedy Agyapong or worse when some people will actually start inflicting harm on
people based on tribe.

If Kennedy Agyapong really did say what he is supposed to have said, then that is
unfortunate because there are a lot of inter-tribal marriages between the Ewes and
Asantes in Ashanti region with children who have an Asante and Ewe as parents, do we
kill these children too? If there is going to be a genocide in Ghana, it is not
going to start in Ashanti region where we have lived peacefully with every tribe in
Ghana and their community Chiefs even have a place in Manyhia Palce where they take
part in all Asanteman deliberations.

I myself have two Cousins married to Ewe women with six children involved and if
anybody thinks I will allow a fellow Asante to kill these Ewe sister in laws and
their children, then they are dreaming.
This is just registration and voting and nobody should lose his or her life for
these greedy Politicians to live a life of luxury.

The Ghana Police has been a failure on this registration exercise. The few of them
who have been brave like ACP Awuni and ASP Ofori has been thrown under the bus by
their superiors whilst the corrupt ones are getting rewarded. The Police are cowards
and have allowed themselves to be politized dishing out justice with political
colors. If anything goes wrong in Ghana, the IGP and his commanders will be held
responsible with the selective justice now being practiced by them.

Nii Vanderpuije, Ademola Coker, Kobby Acheampong and a host of NDCians have said
things that they should have been arrested for but the Police failed to act because
of powers from above. These people doing the bidding of NDC at the Police CID and
the BNI should pray hard NDC does not lose the December elections because they will
be called to order, no qualms about that. They have chosen to be the Policemen for
NDC and will not have their jobs if NDC is not in power because nobody can close his
or her eyes and go to sleep with the enemy.

A woman was beaten just for urging residents of Odododiodoo to register and we have
the Chairman of the Greater Accra Region, Ademola Coker telling Ghanaians that she
deserves to be beaten because she went to somebody's territory. Where did we get
these fools to occupy such important positions? It is only in NDC that somebody with
the name of Ademola which sounds Yoruba from Nigeria can tell a Ghanaian that she
has gone to somebody's territory. The last time I checked, Odododiodoo constituency
was still part of Ghana and not in the Yoruba state of Lagos.

President of the Republic of Ghana is totally blind to the atrocious acts of his
aides and henchmen and deaf to their lies that provoked ethnic tensions in the
country and willfully oblivious of the dangerous undercurrents that threaten the
peace, most of which were being deliberately stoked by his appointees. Mills should
bear all the ruckus going on in Ghana because the buck stops at his Presidential
table. Maybe he did not read his Presidential functions and somebody ought to get
him back to the classroom and teach him what his duties as a President are, I am
tired of his below par performance as a leader and Ghanaians should have known this.
A President who failed to be a father to his own son cannot be a father to a country
of 24 million people, MAKA A MAKA.

Justice Sarpong

Houston, Texas