John Mahama
We have learnt with disbelief about some irresponsible persons in Tamale taking the law into their hands on Thursday as they fired shots into the air and burnt tyres.
They had been incited by the defeated NDC flag bearer John Mahama and regrettably one of the MPs from that party in Tamale as well as other NDC gurus.
The objective of inciting the party supporters to breach the public order, law and peace and same traceable to former President John Mahama and the said Tamale MP should not be tolerated.
That show of nonsense offers the authorities an opportunity to apply the law and prove to the bad politicians and their supporters that Ghana is not a failed state.
Ghana should not shut down because the NDC could not regain political power.
This country is not a failed state and those who breach its laws must be prosecuted by the police before a court of law.
We are not in the animal kingdom where anything goes; those who find themselves in privileged positions should not think that they are above the law because of the wrongful politicisation of crime in this country.
We are in a civilised society where the rule of law is operative.
What happened in Tamale should not be repeated because the signal it emits is that hoodlums can listen to their political paymasters and disturb the peace of the country when it suits them.
We are disappointed that even before the hoodlums took to the streets and set tyres on fire to draw attention to themselves and in some instances firing weapons, no iota of intelligence was gathered by the relevant security agencies. This, we find reprehensible, especially when the former President’s proclivity to stir the hornets’ nest is not in contention.
We appreciate the constraints under which the security agencies are working and the challenges in ferreting intelligence, but that should not stop them from being on top of the game.
Operating in a flashpoint demands that the relevant agencies find ingenious ways of seeking intelligence which at this time of NDC’s frustration cannot be marginalised.
In Savelugu, a thirty minute drive or so from the regional capital of Tamale, an AK 47 loaded with an extra magazine was found in the office of the NDC parliamentary candidate for the constituency. At a time when his ‘win’ is going to be contested in court because of over-voting, his possession of an AK 47, not a pump action firearm in his office is telling.
With the AK 47 weapon, an assault one at that, not one of the firearms for which individuals can legally possess, we are curious to find out how he came by the seized firearm.
How did he acquire it? These are some of the questions the police would be posing to him.
Other persons and NDC supporters in the town had their illegally owned AK 47 and G3 rifles seized by the police.
We are excited about the seizure as well as the arrest. We are apprehensive however about the possibility of what by all standards is a serious case been doused as it is always the case when politicians are enmeshed in criminal cases.
This case should not be allowed to die because an innocent person, a girl, was killed earlier in an election-related violence.
Sammy Gyamfi could stand in front of the cameras to declare Mr. Mahama as president-elect – is something I cannot understand – and he is still walking free???