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Opinions of Sunday, 22 April 2012

Columnist: Marwan, Abdul Wahab

NPP Must Take A Stand On Tribal Comments

We watched with revulsion and disbelief, the welcome accorded Mr. Kennedy Agyapong at the NPP headquarters after he was granted bail by a court in Accra yesterday which amounted to an endorsement of his poisoned ethnocentric effusion of .It is most unfortunate to see the largest opposition party endorse and celebrate statements and actions that sets one ethnic group against another ethnic group.

Mr. Kennedy Agyapong had granted an interview to an Accra based radio station, Oman FM for which he was arrested and bailed subsequently, he said among other things “If you are an Ashanti or Akan and someone enters your shop, take whatever you can and hit him on the head. We will beat all the Gas in the Ashanti region. I declare war in this country, Gbevlo Lartey should come and arrest me today….if you have a knife to use it to knife them…I declare war today”.

Many well-meaning Ghanaians,civil society organizations, religious bodies etc have condemned Mr. Agyapong’s statement and in the heat of the condemnations, the NPP did not issue an explicit condemnation but issued a statement that said among other things that the NPP is behind the police,that the NPP abhors intemperate, inciteful and inflammatory statements and actions that can stir ethnic tensions and affirmed the multi-ethnic heritage of both the NPP and the county.

Why then will the NPP make a sudden turnaround on their earlier position that purports to abhor statements and actions that inflame ethnic passions by celebrating Kennedy Agypong who made those statements. The NPP statement was a subterfuge conveniently timed to deflect the anger and condemnations that were coming from civil society groups, religious organization and well-meaning Ghanaians that in the wake of Kennedy Agyapong’s tribal effusions.

Fellow Ghanaians the NPP by celebrating Kennedy Agyapong confirms to us that the statement they issued was only a veil intended to deceive Ghanaians into believing that they abhorred the horrible statement. They cannot in one breath be against the statement and in another breath celebrate the man who made those statements.

We condemn this hypocritical behavior of the NPP in no uncertain terms and call on them to render an unqualified apology to Akans-who are peace-loving, nation-loving and all embracing ethnic group, we also call on the NPP to render an unqualified apology to all Gas and Ewes and all Ghanaian s for holding a man who has declared who on them as their hero.

As for Kennedy Agyapong, instead of rendering an apology for his xenophobic statements and showing remorse and asking for forgiveness from all Ghanians for the harm his statements have caused the nation, he stood at the NPP headquarters to deny he ever made the statement when the statement was made on radio to the hearing of the whole world, recorded on tape and has been in the public domain since then.

For lying to the whole world, for seeking to set one ethnic group against another ethnic group, for refusing to apologize and ask for forgiveness from the people he had so wronged with his xenophobic effusions. He has lost the little semblance he had of a member of parliament and lost every moral right to hold himself as a honorable member of the parliament of the Republic of Ghana.

We therefore call on Mr. Kennedy Agyapong to resign his position as a member of parliament of the Republic of Ghana as he has no moral right to hold himself as such and render an unqualified apology to Akan,Gas,Ewes and all Ghanaian s for his poisoned, backward xenophobic statements.

We also call on the NPP to take a stand on the statements made by Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, the NPP cannot be both in favor and against the statements at the statement. Where do you stand NPP?Declare your stand now!

Long live Ghana and may we remain united in peace until eternity.

Marwan Abdul Wahab

Signed Tel:0246740540 or 0242902386