Harriet Thompson
My tweet would not get peace-loving Ghanaians onto the streets, British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson explains the motive behind her tweet on the arrest of social media activist, Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor on Tuesday, May 17.
According to the High Commissioner, her tweet was harmless and would not have gotten people onto the streets as suggested in a letter by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare.
Ghana’s Inspector General of Police lashed out at the British High Commissioner to Ghana, for interfering unnecessarily in “the internal affairs” of her host country.
Thompson had expressed concern on social media over the arrest of the #FixTheCountry Movement lead convenor, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, for a traffic offence.
“Oliver Barker Vormawor, convener of #FixTheCountry movement, arrested again, I understand for a motoring offence on his way to court. I’ll be interested to see where this goes…” the diplomat tweeted a week ago.
In a four-page response to the British diplomat, Dampare said her tweet violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, “which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the international affairs of their host country”.
“Is there any particular reason why, of all the people arrested daily for various offences in Ghana, you are especially interested in this person’s case?” the IGP asked.
“What is more, we consider your tweet a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country.
“Your Excellency, the fact that you use the phrase ‘arrested again’, we believe, must mean you were making reference to previous occasions Mr Barker-Vormawor was arrested for threatening the security of the state and recently for motor traffic offences.”
The IGP took cognisance of precedents in Britain where some religious leaders were picked up for pronouncements considered threatening to the state.
“This, we believe, your country did in its quest to safeguard the security of the state and ensure the sustenance of the peace the inhabitants enjoy.”
However, in an interview on GHOne Television on Tuesday, May 31, Harriet Thompson clarified her intention was not to spark any trouble.
According to her, “My experience[s] of Ghana, are peace-loving nation where people do have the right to express themselves, where they do have the right to come and protest things that matter to them.
“A tweet like that is not going to be the thing that will get people onto the streets, in my view. If I had thought that there was the remotest chance of that, I wouldn’t be tweeting things like that. That is clearly not my intention.”
By Vincent Kubi