Asokwa-East NDC condemns assault on party's Regional Secretary

Kumasi, Aug 6, GNA - The Asokwa-East constituency executives of the National Democratic Congress and its membership on Wednesday condemned the assault on Mr Sly Akakpovie, Ashanti Regional Secretary of the party, by a prison officer at the forecourt of the Kumasi Central Prisons recently.

The executives and members of the constituency said even if Mr Akakpovie had flouted any of the rules and regulations of the Prisons Service, assaulting him was not the right procedure to be adopted on him.

Mr J.B. Salifu, the constituency secretary, signed the statement. "We are of the conviction that a more humane approach and procedure could have been adopted by the prisons officer in dealing with Mr Akakpovie, no matter his offence, rather than resorting to battering him."

The statement appealed to the Director of Prisons to institute investigations into "the unfortunate incident to avoid a repetition of such an act of lawlessness on the part of some prisons officers."

"Our party, just like any other political party, believes in the rule of law and the enforcement of fundamental human rights as enshrined in the constitution of Ghana, and will therefore, do nothing to undermine it."

The release said a prisons officer at the forecourt of the Kumasi Central Prisons assaulted Mr Akakpovie when he shouted, "honourable," when he spotted Ibrahim Adams, a former Minister of Agriculture, being taken into the Kumasi Central Prisons.

He is serving a two-year prison sentence.