A political science professor and advocate for good governance, Ransford Gyampo, has said the public must be educated to refrain from attacking security personnel.
Prof Gyampo reiterated that security personnel, especially the military, are trained to devour external aggressors rather than to maintain peace and order—the preserve of the police service.
He expressed grave concerns about the conduct of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) parliamentary candidate (PC) for the Amenfi East Constituency, Ernest Frimpong, who was captured inciting some alleged small-scale miners to attack any security personnel who visit their site to stop them from mining.
Also, Prof Gyampo had qualms with human rights lawyers and activists who jumped to the defence of citizens when the military retaliated an attack on its officers.
“If you have a whole parliamentary aspirant urging people to be attacking these soldiers whose duty it is not to maintain peace but to devour external aggressors, then what will you expect them to do if people begin to hit at them,” Prof. Gyampo said during discussions on the fight against ‘Galamsey’ on Saturday, June 15 edition of The Key Points on TV3.
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“I’m not happy about the way we have even allowed some of these things to fester in the psyche of many Ghanaians that you can misbehave towards the soldiers and that if they respond, then human rights lawyers will come in to say that they don’t have the right to respond,” he added.
He argued that activists should rather focus their advocacy on highlighting and deepening the consequences of attacking law enforcement agents, adding that nobody has the right to attack security personnel.
Moreover, Prof Gyampo emphasized that President Akufo-Addo should have punished the Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah for the comments made by the NPP PC in the presence of the minister.
The Parliamentary Candidate however, said his statements did not mean to endorse illegal mining or encourage miners to fight military personnel.
According to him, his remarks were taken out of context from a two-hour engagement with artisanal small-scale miners and emphasised that his intentions were misrepresented.
But Prof Gyampo said, “If I were the president, I would say even as a minister for looking on you should be made to suffer sanctions but nothing has been done by the President.”
Meanwhile, Mr Frimpong was arrested by the police for interrogation and granted bail on Wednesday, June 12.
The Municipal Chief Executive of Amenfi East, Mr Frederick Korankye, has described the statements attributed to Mr Frimpong as “unfortunate.”
The post We must educate the public against attacking security personnel – Gyampo first appeared on 3News.
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