Kan Dapaah,Security minister
I have since last week Friday tried to restrain myself from responding in equal measure to some irresponsible statements made by the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman ‘Wontumi,’ and the party’s Member of Parliament (MP) of Assin North, Kennedy Agyepong.
But the more I try, the more I become irritated. The two are behaving as if the NPP is still in opposition, forgetting that their party (the NPP) is the government in power, and for that matter, it requires of them, including every member of the ruling party to behave responsibly.
What was the crime of the National Security Minister, Mr. Albert Kan Dapaah, in describing Delta Force, a vigilante group associated with the governing party as criminals to warrant unnecessary attacks and insults from people like Wontumi and Kennedy Agyepong. And if the description of criminals does not fit members of the Delta Force, then I don’t know who they are. The likes of Wontumi and Kennedy Agyepong must know that Ghana is not a banana republic where any Tom, Dick and Harry can flout the laws of the land with impunity and go free.
What the members of Delta Force did last week Wednesday when they stormed a Circuit Court in Kumasi to free their members who had fallen foul of the law was an affront to democracy and rule of law which I least expected Wontumi in particular, to flare up and as a result hurl insults at Mr. Kan Dapaah who sought to ensure that the laws of the country are respected and obeyed by everybody irrespective of who you are or what political party you belong to.
This country is governed by a constitution, and not decrees, and the soul of Ghana lies in the spirit and the letter of our 1992 Constitution, which Constitution does not recognise the existence of any vigilante political groups like Delta Force, so is Wontumi and Kennedy Agyepong making nose and empty threats?
In case if they have forgotten I want to remind them that Ghanaians have only entrusted the destiny of this country into their (NPP) hands for the next four years, but that doesn’t also mean that they can turn the constitution upside down, and toy with the lives of the over 25 million Ghanaians.
Mr. Kan Dapaah is somebody I have known for years, and I can confidently say he is an honest man and law-abiding. His junior brother was my course mate at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), and we were very close friends.
Mr. Kan Dapaah was at that time Director of Finance and Administration at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), and during that period, I used to visit his family at his Roman Ridge residence in Accra as a family friend.
But I didn’t even know he was a politician because he was too gentle for me to meddle in politics, until the NPP won power in 2000 and he was subsequently appointed Minister of State by former President John Agyekum Kufuor.
And he (Kan Dapaah) doesn’t need to tell Wontumi and Kennedy Agyepong how he has been supporting the NPP because he was not trained and brought up as a braggart like they are.
His records as a minister during Kufuor’s era are there for everybody to see which I think perhaps endeared him to President Akufo-Addo to appoint him as his national security minister because of his trustworthiness.
But I don’t blame Wontumi and Kennedy Agyepong for becoming so-called ‘King-Kongs’ in the NPP because the same NPP emboldened them by supporting their lawlessness when the party was in opposition.
What rather saddens me is the fact that President Akufo-Addo, who is touted as an apostle of rule of law to the extent that he is nicknamed “the law” by his contemporaries, has not been able to call these two men who are allegedly sponsoring the activities of the Delta Force to order by telling them in the face that their actions are dragging the image of the country into the mud.
I don’t want to believe that the president is under a spell as he cannot see the repercussions of the actions of Wontumi and Kennedy Agyepong to his government.
It is high time President Akufo-Addo took control of affairs of this country by ensuring that the law-breakers in his government are dealt with accordingly to serve as a deterrent to others who may in the future want to take the laws into their own hands.
