Minority Leader: The state has failed to protect MPs

Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has questioned why the state continues to refuse Members of Parliament police protection, despite offering such to other government appointees.

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He wondered why the state finds it appropriate to provide security to Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), yet is unmoved to do same for members of the legislature.

He made the comments on Accra FM News Tuesday February 9, 2016 following the murder of the MP for Abuakwa North at his Shiashie residence in Accra.

“There’s protection for ministers, deputy ministers, and DCEs. There’s nowhere in the world, in the culture of reckoning, that DCEs rank above MPs. How do DCEs get police protection, while MPs are denied same?” the Suame MP inquired.

“When you ask they say they would like to do it but the MPs are too many hence we cannot offer them protection. We do not have to let this (the murder of the MP) happen before we take action but it has happened.”

Mr Joseph Boakye Danquah Adu suffered multiple stab wounds Tuesday when unknown assailants stormed his residence at Shiashie.

Reports say the hitmen gained access to the MP’s bedroom by climbing onto a ladder, where, after a brief struggle with the lawmaker, managed to overpower him and inflict the stab wounds on him.

The 51-year-old MP was the grandson of Dr J B Danquah, who was christened the doyen of Ghanaian politics.

He served as deputy Minister for Women and Children’s Affair winning the Abuakwa North seat in the Eastern Region in the December 2012 elections when he defeated the National Democratic Congress’ Victor Smith.

He was a chartered accountant. The Police have opened investigations into the MP’s murder.

The legislator was survived by a wife and two children.