The Member of Parliament (MP) of Awutu Senya East, Mavis Hawa Koomson’s discharge of a firearm at a voter registration centre was premeditated.
This is according to the President of policy think tank, IMANI Africa.
Hawa Koomson, who is also the Minister of Special Development Initiatives, admitted that she fired a gunshot at the Steps to Christ registration centre on Monday, July 20 after some confrontations with some NDC members in the area.
According to her, she fired the supposed warning shot to defend herself.
Other gunshots were fired and three motorbikes were burnt during the altercation.
This incident has been topical among Ghanaians, with most of the people demanding for the Minister’s resignation, termination of her appointment or arrest.
President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, speaking on the back of this asserted that the MP’s action was thought through with the clear intention to cause chaos at the registration centre.
“It was premeditated thuggery because what it meant was that the person had actually carried a gun to the place to cause mayhem so when the opportunity afforded itself, she actually created the mayhem to show somebody where power lies. She should be sacked. She’s not befitting to hold that portfolio because of this singular thuggish behaviour,” he said on The Big Issue on Citi TV.
Mr. Cudjoe further stressed on his calls for Hawa Koomson to be dismissed outrightly.
“For crying out loud, what the person did, was criminal. This person is not supposed to be the enforcer of who is supposed to register as a Ghanaian. However fraught it is, it does not lie in the hands and the machinery and the machete hands of a minister to go and say that I’m enforcing some sort of uncommon rule. I sincerely am dumbfounded that the centre has not said a word and has made meaningless the entire vigilante law. Everybody has condemned this action and everyone has called for the President to sack her. This is not a question about letting her resign. She must have been sacked immediately when this was announced because it was unprovoked.”
Hawa Koomson interrogated
The Awutu Senya East MP, who is also the Minister of Special Development Initiatives has been interrogated by the Central Regional Command of the Ghana Police Service.
She went to the Police Command on Friday, July 24 in the company of her lawyers where she was taken through her statement.
Police have also retrieved the weapon and ammunition she used together with a license covering the weapon.
Meanwhile, the case docket has been handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department headquarters in Accra.
Parties for or against her resignation or dismissal
So far, neither the President nor Parliament has commented on the conduct of the legislator who represents the Awutu Senya East constituency.
Calls from Mrs. Hawa Koomson’s sacking or resignation have come from political stakeholders like the National Democratic Congress and neutral observers like the National Peace Council.
At a press briefing at the NDC’s headquarters in Accra, the Director of Elections of the NDC, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah said Hawa Koomsom and her accomplices should be made to face the law with immediate effect.
The NDC has also served notice that it will prosecute Hawa Koomson should John Mahama emerge victorious in the December 2020 general elections if President Akufo-Addo fails to act.
A security analyst, Colonel Festus Aboagye also says he is hopeful that eventually, the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye will follow the necessary procedures and grant access to the Awutu Senya MP so she can be made to face the law like any other Ghanaian.
This statement comes on the back of theories indicating that Hawa Koomson cannot be arrested because of privileges that come with holding a parliamentary position.
It is believed that, but for the permission of the Speaker of Parliament, members of the House cannot be picked up by the police for offences committed.
Some individuals, including some members of the NPP, however, disagree to these thoughts and calls,
The National Chairman of the party, Freddie Blay, has described these calls as “absolutely needless”.
In a statement, he said such calls should be “totally disregarded.”
A deputy General Secretary of the party, Nana Obiri Boahen, also insists that the MP was justified in discharging a firearm because it was in self-defence.
As far as he is concerned, the MP “has not committed any offence.”