How Sam Jonah lashed out at Joe Wise over armed robbers comment

In justifying President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s silence on the killing of some two persons by security officers in one of the many incidents of violence that marred the 2020 elections, First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu said the president would be wrong to commiserate with families of armed robbers.

In his view, the victims of the electoral violence deserved no sympathy as they were criminals caught in their act.

“The president should stay out, let the investigative people determine what happened but I did it is not fair to insist that because somebody died, even if he was in the process of committing a crime, it becomes an issue, No, I beg to differ.”

“I think it is not fair for people to refer to an event without going back, what happened? Should the president just be talking about if a criminal is shot, the crime does not matter?”, Mr Osei-Owusu quizzed.

Asked if the families of the deceased do not deserve commiserations from the president, Mr. Owusu retorted by, asking, “do we commiserate with the families of armed robbers we shoot?

This comment courted him criticism from some well-meaning Ghanaians but the Bekwai MP was adamant he was right.

Over the weekend celebrated businessman Sam Jonah delivered a speech at a Rotary event and touched on the issue.

Sam Jonah bemoaned the incident and intimated that never should a life be lost in the election of public officials.

Despite not citing his name, Sam Jonah berated the MP for making the comment, describing it as ‘new low” for the country.

“We have just finished another election, the 8th in the series since the beginning of our fourth Republican democratic experiment. As usual, the accolades came in from all corners of the world, and we took them with pride. What we failed to tell the world is that some people lost their lives in the course of the election. No election is as important as to warrant the loss of even one life.

“And the silence over it is numbing as it gives the impression that it is okay, and it is to be expected. No, it is not to be expected.

“One of the saddest moments for me was after the State of the Nation address when an MP was asked why there had not been serious outpouring of grief about the death of the innocent people in Techiman, his response was that as far as he was concerned, they were undeserving of any sympathy because he saw them as armed robbers. For me, that was a new low for the country,” Sir Sam Jonah intimated..