[ 2012-04-20 ]

NPP commends Judiciary for upholding rule of law
The Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Jake
Obetsebi-Lamptey, has commended the judiciary for
upholding the rule of law and not doing the will
of President Mills in the ongoing saga involving
the Assin-North Member of Parliament, Kennedy
Ohene Agyepong, but rather proceeding to grant him
bail.

In a statement issued by the NPP Chairman, he
noted that the Attorney General, knowing well that
the magistrate’s court had no jurisdiction to hear
the matter, took Ken Agyepong to that court only
to request for the court to remand him in police
custody for an additional two weeks.

“It was merely to seek to keep the Member of the
Parliamentary in custody in order to ‘teach him a
lesson’”, Jake noted, describing the treason
charges levelled against Mr. Agyapong “only as a
mockery of the law being perpetrated for reckless
partisan advantage.”

Jake maintained that had the magistrate done the
will of the President and his appointees and
remanded Hon. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong for two (2)
weeks, “no one could have answered for the
reaction of those showing him [Kennedy] support in
Accra, Cape Coast, Takoradi, Kumasi and other
cities and towns across Ghana.”

According to the NPP Chairman, since the police
had shown by their arrest of Hon. Kennedy Agyapong
“that they are not fearful of taking action
against a senior NPP politician”, they must also
show their even handed application of justice by
taking action against NDC orchestrated violence
and or incitement to violence, during and before
the ongoing registration exercise.

Jake recounted statements made by Mr. Amatepe,
deputy Volta Regional Minister, who called on Ewes
in the Region at Aflao and elsewhere, at the time
of the visit to the region by President Mills, “to
beat NPP Akan registration monitors.”
The NPP Chairman also cited the example, for
police action, of NDC thugs photographed going
through the Odododiodio Constituency with guns,
shovels, pickaxes, cutlasses and clubs wreaking
havoc and terrorising residents.

“Let the Ghana Police meet this challenge,” Jake
charged.

According to the NPP Chairman, the ongoing
brouhaha surrounding NPP firebrand Kennedy
Agyepong is a deliberate ploy by President Mills
to intimidate and cow the entire leadership of the
NPP into submission.

Jake noted that President Mills in deploying
state resources against political opponents is
“prepared to sacrifice the rule of law and the
national interest to satisfy his desire for his
own political gain, by the use of violence and
cheap propaganda.”

The NPP chairman noted that the primary aim of
arresting, detaining and prosecuting Ken Agyepong
is first and foremost “to put the fear of the
‘Asomdwehene’ in the NPP” and secondly to punish
Ken for leading the crusade on the GH¢51 million
Woyomegate scandal and other dubious multi-million
dollar judgment debts made by his government
mainly to his major financiers.

“It is obvious that President Mills and his
administration have been rocked by Kennedy
Agyapong’s exposé on the judgment debt scandals,
in which GH¢51.8 million was doled-out to Mr
Woyome, and arbitration settlements of €35 million
and €94 million were given to Waterville and CP
Construction Ltd, respectively.

“These payments were illicit because no evidence
was proffered to support the claims. On the
contrary, government ignored all the glaring
evidence that the claims were fraudulent,” Jake
added.

Jake noted that President Mills’ agenda of seeking
to discredit the character of Ken Agyepong will
not whitewash the criminal wrongdoing of his
administration.

Mr Obetsebi-Lapmptey reaffirmed the NPP’s backing
of Hon Ken Agyepong adding that “the NPP remains
firmly behind the Hon. Kennedy Agyepong in his
quest for justice in the unfounded accusations of
treason made against him.”

Jake continued, “We would not sit by and allow
the rule of law to be transformed into the misrule
of Mills.”

Source - Citifmonline

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