Coronavirus: Push for more education, not just arrests - Oppong Nkrumah

Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has stated that there should be more education and sensitization on the need to observe all the protocols outlined to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the government cannot control the actions of politicians and Ghanaians in general at every time and how they react to COVID-19 protocols.

His comments come after concerns have been raised against the violation of some of the protocols outlined to deal with the COVID-19 including social distancing, at the various political events ahead of the December 7 elections.

Though COVID-19 has not been eradicated, people gather to see politicians as they continue their campaign and tour across the country.

The Eastern Regional President of the Ghana Association of Biomedical Laboratory Scientists (GABMLS) has called for the arrest and prosecution of all politicians and their supporters in the country.

Samuel Appiah said with the Imposition of Restrictions Act in Ghana to fight coronavirus and the current political health walks and rallies, all politicians and their supporters should be arrested and prosecuted.

He made the call in an interview with Onua FM’s Ghana Dadwene on Monday while reacting to the President’s address on the virus on Sunday.

Ghana introduced a range of measures in a bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

These include quarantine and isolation of those who had the virus and imposition of a new law, Act 1012, which was passed by Parliament to arrest and prosecute offenders of the Covid-19 protocols.

But a few weeks to the presidential elections, campaign activities such as rallies, health walks, and others have disregarded the provisions in the Imposition of Restrictions Act.

Party supporters and various candidates including President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo have been seen in viral videos with huge crowds in a bid to canvass for votes for the elections.

Commenting on this development, Mr. Appiah noted that the law is too harsh to implement because with the current law, just not wearing a nose mask should land the person in jail.

He suggested that there should be a less harsh law that would be easy to implement so that it would be easy.

The GABMLS President said “the Covid-19 law is harsher and we need a liberal one which will be easy like spot fine.

“With the current law if implemented, by this time, all politicians must be in prison. If we arrest such a person and put him behind bars, by this time, all politicians are in prisons looking at the campaign.”

Speaking on this development in an interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day programme on TV3 Tuesday, October 20, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said “you cannot control everybody’s response forever and so there will be some easing of restrictions. The important thing is that as those restrictions are eased, we balance it with a certain level of compliance and preventive mechanism.”

Regarding the call to arrest, he said “the security agencies don’t only arrest. Their main aim is to educate and inform. So we need to push more for education and sensitization.”