Epitome Of Hate Speech, Death Threats, Insults & Lies (Part 2)

‘Genocide MP’: Epitome Of Hate Speech, Death Threats, Insults & Lies (Part 2)

New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, Kenndy Ohene Agyapong’s alleged genocidal comments may be the height of folly, because of the devastating ramifications associated with such reckless abandon, taking into consideration the typical example of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. But this is not new as far as the maverick mouth shooting NPP guru is concerned. Such conduct is his stock in trade.

Brief facts about the Rwandan genocide: About 800,000 Rwandan minority Tutsis were brutally killed by majority Hutus during the 100-day genocide in Rwanda. Hutus forced 200,000 Tutsis out of Rwanda. The massacres only came to an end when the Tutsi-led Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), backed by Uganda, overthrew the Hutu regime. The Rwandan genocide was the result of hate speech. Last Thursday, we showed a few examples of hate speech spewed on Kwame Sefa-Kayi, Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ Host, a Ghanaian Ewe and Alhaji Bature, a northerner, not to talk of his recent declaration of war on Voltatrians and Gas that has finally landed him in trouble with the law, not just of local but international dimensions.

Today The Catalyst has decided to draw the attention of its cherished readers to a related issue. Kennedy Agyapong has the penchant for issuing death threats on people at the least opportunity. Former President Rawlings, Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Alhaji Bature and recently personnel of the Ghana Police Service and Ghanaian soldiers have all at one time or the other been threatened with death by the Assin North MP.

Kenndy Agyapong threatened the police with death at the latest NPP rally at Mantse Agbona in Accra. He said in the presence of his colleague NPP leaders including flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo and former President Kufuor that members of the NPP will lynch any police personnel who would stand in the way of the party’s victory in the 2012 general elections. The NPP MP revised this threat in his infamous genocidal speech when he said the NPP would lynch any fake police man and fake soldier the NDC would deploy in the elections. The Managing editor of The Alhaj newspaper, not too long ago, was also threatened by Kennedy Agyapong with death. “I’ll kill you,” the violent spewing NPP MP creamed on Asempa FM. Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr. after a Radio Gold programme, Alhaji & Alhaji, during the first term of the Kufuor-led NPP government came under a death threat from Kennedy Agyapong, who was the NPP representative on the Saturday morning programme. He told Mr. Kwesi Pratt to thank his stars that Mr Kufuor was a good man, which was why he (Pratt) was still alive.

This came as a confirmation of a Lens newspaper publication months earlier that certain unnamed NPP persons had plotted to assassinate Mr Kwesi Pratt for his criticisms of the NPP government.

On a campaign platform in Central region ahead of the 2004 general elections, Kennedy Agyapong, whilst in the presence of then NPP presidential candidate and other NPP big shots, threatened the lives of former President Jerry John Rawlings and his entire household. He stated that if the former President attempted to derail the process, he (Kennedy Agyapong) and others would wipe-out his household from the surface of the earth and not only that, but all his domestic animals including even straying lizards would be killed. Issues were raised later by then aide to former President Rawlings, Mr Victor Smith, to the effect that attempts were made by some in the NPP to implicate former President Rawlings and assassinate him.

Why the law is yet to catch up with the loose-talking NPP MP on his death threats is baffling. Because first of all, it does not lie in his power to enforce the law when someone engages in acts detrimental to the state. It is also not for Kennedy Agyapong and the NPP, or any person or group of persons for that matter, to take action by lynching people suspected to be, as he pointed out in his revised threat on the lives of the police and soldiers, ‘fake’ police or soldier. Pundits say this could put the lives of every policeman or soldier on duty on election-day at risk.

The Catalyst can however recall that in the 2008 general elections, NPP had allegedly engaged fake policemen as part of their rigging plan. Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings narrated on TV how she confronted one of the fake policemen somewhere in Osu, Accra on voting day in the second round of the presidential elections and the way the said fake policeman gave himself away. For Kennedy Agyapong, death threats on others are a common feature in his political pronouncements. The Catalyst wonders why the Assin North MP has been allowed to degenerate to the levels of ‘treason, terrorism and genocide.’