Kofi Amankwa-Manu (left)
DEPUTY MINISTER of Defence, Kofi Amankwa-Manu, has chided persons calling for coup d’états in Ghana to overthrow the constitution and government.
According to him, such pronouncements are unfortunate since these tend to create fear and panic among the citizenry, and can derail the democratic development of Ghana.
The minister advised people who nurse such inordinate ambitions to rule the country outside the ballot box to banish such thoughts since the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), under the current administration, remains resolute in the defence of the nation.
The lawmaker, who was speaking at a Livelihood Empowerment Project he organised for the youth of Atwima Kwanwoma in the Ashanti Region, described persons instigating coups as detractors and nation wreckers.
He said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, led by President Akufo-Addo, is poised to develop this country and would not allow any war monger to detract it.
The minister called on Ghanaians to go about their normal duties since soldiers and other security personnel are working to protect them.
“I don’t know what they will benefit from a coup but I believe in all fairness that majority of Ghanaians do not want that to happen. We want our freedom. If we want to make a decision so far as changing governments is concerned, we will go to the ballot box and not use a bullet,” he said.
In his view, using the bullet to change governments is not the way to go, pointing out that there are many people who support what the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is doing, much the same way there are others who also have a different opinion.
“That is why within the laws of Ghana we have set that every four years we will go to the ballot, so if you like what the NPP is doing, just go to the ballot and then make that decision and if you dislike the policies of NPP, you have every right to vote for whoever you want,” he stated.
Reacting to a recent statement made by Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which allegedly instigated the slapping of the Deputy Speaker, the MP said, “We need not slap for laws to work.”
Mr. Asiedu Nketiah had opined that, “Deputy Speaker, Joe Osei-Owusu, must be compelled through physical means to ensure Parliamentarians execute their mandate while sitting in for the Speaker, Alban Bagbin.
Parliament, according to the Deputy Defence Minister, “is not a boxing arena and nobody wants to go there and box. We go to Parliament to debate, share ideas to push the country forward. If we go to Parliament and we begin to box ourselves, then you can imagine what will happen to this country.”
FROM David Afum, Kumasi