Kennedy misconstrued: Investigator tells court

Assistant Superintendent of Police Jerry John Boye, the investigator in the trial of Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, for provocation of riot, has told an Accra Circuit Court that the MP, in his statement to the police, noted that what he said on ‘National Agenda’ programme on Oman FM, an Accra-based radio station, was misconstrued.

He told the court presided over by Ebenezer Osei-Darko that the caution statement written by the accused person said he phoned into the morning programme hosted by Fiifi Boafo on Oman FM, which he owned.

The police officer noted that Mr Agyapong complained about the failure of the security agencies to protect New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters who were being beaten at Odododiodioo and made certain inflammatory statements on air.

The witness, in his evidence in-chief led by Principal State Attorney, Anthony Rexford Wiredu, stated that he was one of those who interrogated the accused person at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

He had earlier told the court that he was on April 13, 2012 assigned by their Director-General to investigate the case concerning certain inflammatory statements Mr Agyapong made.

He said he took a copy of the accused person’s contributions on the radio programme and took it to Bureau of Ghana Languages for transcription and translation and tendered a copy of it to the court in evidence.

The police officer further tendered a copy of the receipt which he was issued with after he paid for the transcription and translation at a cost of GH¢20.

The witness said after interrogating the MP, he sought advice from the Attorney-General’s Department and was told to charge him with provocation of riot and offensive conduct.

Under cross-examination by Nii Ayikoi Otoo, the witness,

when asked about why he was told by the A-G’s department to charge the accused person with the provocation and offensive conduct, said the A-G department had told him all the ingredients of the said offences matched with the said words and conduct of the MP.

He also admitted that he sent a copy of the caution statement to the A-G’s.

The witness was asked to describe the people who were said to be NPP supporters who rioted at the Police Headquarters, to which he stated that the said supporters were engaged in vandalism.

He also noted that the MP claimed he phoned in from his own house to contribute to the programme.

Counsel for the MP asked whether he would be surprised to hear that the one who did the translation testified that Ken did not say that Gas or Ewes should be killed, to which the witness answered that he heard some words in Twi to mean, “If you have something, use it to hit his their head”.

Counsel for the MP said he might be making a submission of no case after the state closed its case, to which Mr. Wiredu said the state had not indicated that they had closed their case.

The case has been adjourned to March 13, 2013.

Samuel Wiredu Amoh, a translator of the Bureau of Ghana Languages who translated the words of the MP, had testified that there was nowhere in the tape where he called for Akans to kill Gas or Ewes.

He told the court the words the MP used in the tape were “beat them”, adding that the words he used also contained a lot of the word “if”.

When asked by Nii Ayikoi Otoo whether or not he had counted the number of ‘ifs’ in the statement, he admitted he did not but knew there were quite a number.

He said that he would not disagree with Mr. Otoo who said the word ‘beat’ could not be used to mean kill.

The witness tendered two similar translated versions of the MP’s speech on Oman FM where he spoke, based on which he is being accused of inciting one tribe against another.

The translator, in his evidence in chief, said the tape was brought to him by a Criminal Investigations Department (CID) officer for translation.

The MP has pleaded not guilty to provocation to riot and offensive conduct.

Stephen Boafo, also known as Fiifi Boafo, the host of ‘National Agenda’, was the first witness to testify in the case

Led in evidence-in chief by Rexford Wiredu, Mr. Boafo said he knew the accused person as an MP, adding that even though Agyapong was the boss of Kencity Media, which Oman FM was a subsidiary of, Mrs. Stella Agyapong was his boss not the MP.

He said he was a broadcaster and the host of Oman FM’s morning show which usually discussed newspaper headlines, and politics and had a phone-in segment.

According to him, on April 13, 2012, in the course of the programme, he and his production team were told that the accused person wanted to make a contribution to the programme on the attack at Odododiodioo during the voters’ registration and he allowed him to do so. The MP is on self-cognizance bail.