NPP On Hunger Strike

Some supporters of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Brong Ahafo Region have declared an indefinite hunger strike in protest of what they described as the unlawful arrest and detention of Kennedy Ohene Agyapong. The Assin North MP, who was arrested on Monday, is being held by the police over possible charges of treason in connection with some comments he is said to have made on this Madina-based radio station, Oman FM. NPP sympathizers in the Brong Ahafo Region, who are incensed about the MP’s arrest, on Tuesday morning, converged on the Victoria Park in Sunyani around 5:30am to register their displeasure about the manner in which the law was being unjustifiably applied in the country. The hunger strike action was declared by ‘Bumper to Bumper’, a pressure group affiliated to the NPP. Many people including the aged, taxi drivers, party faithful, and other people who described themselves as friends of Kennedy Agyapong were in attendance. The early morning showers on Tuesday however disrupted what would have been a whole day’s protest. The acting regional coordinator of the group, Kwame Baffoe aka Abronye DC, explained to Daily Guide that the hunger strike would continue until Hon. Agyapong was released from the police incarceration. He said the group and the members of the public who were against the oppressors’ rule had decided to converge every morning to show their solidarity to the Assin North MP, who he described as a freedom fighter and anti-corruption crusader through whose efforts the hidden Woyome scandal came to public notice. Kwame Baffoe described the continuation detention of Hon Agyapong as political persecution. According to him, the Mills-Mahama led NDC government was just paying the MP back for exposing the rots in the government. “We think Hon. Kennedy Agyepong has done no wrong because such statements which are said to be treasonable today have already been said by some officials in the NDC government. Why didn’t the police arrest them?” he asked. He said Baba Jamal, a former Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, declared a Jihad (holy war) at Akwatia during a by-election, but nobody regarded it as a treasonable offence. He indicated that in the 10th November, 2008 edition of the Vanguard newspaper, Charles Kofi Wayo threatened, when he was on the same campaign platform with President Mills, that he had a stockpile of arms and ammunitions which he would use to kill NPP people if the then Kufuor government attempted to rig the 2008 elections. Mr. Baffoe said Nii Lantey Vanderpuye also declared war recently on Metro TV at his Odododiodio constituency, saying that he and the NDC would shed their blood to prevent non-Gas in the constituency from registration exercise. According to him, if what Kennedy Agyapong said on Oman FM constituted treason, then Nii lantey, Kofi Wayo, Baba Jamal and President Mills himself should be arrested because they had all made treasonable statements as then candidate Mills declared that Ghana would turn into Kenya in the run-up to the 2008 elections. Meanwhile, a 75-year-old woman has told Daily Guide that she will continue to be on hunger strike until Kennedy Agyapong is set free. She damned the consequences of the hunger strike on her health and charged the president to demonstrate that he was a father for all by releasing the MP, saying, “IF I die, my blood will be on the head of the president because he has caused it.”

Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako/Daily Guide