Don’t politicise Captain Mahama's murder – Gyampo

It is unhealthy for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to attach politics to Monday’s lynching of Captain Maxwell Adam Mahama by irate youth of Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region on suspicion that he was an armed robber, Professor Ransford Gyampo, Head of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, has said.

The NDC, in a press statement released on Wednesday May 31 following the incident, said: “The NDC is laying blame for this heinous and callous lynching of Captain Mahama at the doorstep of President Akufo-Addo.”

According to the party, Ghana has known no peace since the NDC, led by former President John Dramani Mahama, handed over power to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“Under the direct supervision of President Akufo-Addo, the state has watched and sponsored its goon squads to unleash wanton mayhem on innocent Ghanaians. From the beating up of a serving police officer at the Flagstaff House to the beating up of a regional security co-ordinator, the disruption of a court process, the burning of toll booths, and the molestation of civil servants, the lawless culture of impunity has now reached the doorstep of the Ghana Armed Forces,” the statement signed by its General Secretary Johnson Aseidu Nketia said.

But speaking in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Wednesday, Prof Gyampo said: “When you talk like this, the other side will also start to dig into barbaric incidents that occurred during the tenure of the NDC and that will end in politicisation of the issue at hand.

“If we move on that tangent, we may not be able to get justice that we are all seeking for the victim, and so for me I am not interested in commenting on what Asiedu Nketia has said.

“The whole nation is shocked at the development, let us have respect for Captain Mahama, I know him personally and so I want to focus on mourning him.”