Dr John Osae-Kwapong, a research fellow at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has called for punitive measures to be taken against the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate (PC) for Wassa Amenfi East, following allegations of incitement.
Mr Frimpong is accused of rallying illegal miners, colloquially known as ‘galamseyers’, to resist military forces enforcing anti-galamsey laws.
A video that has gone viral shows Frimpong allegedly encouraging miners to confront police and military personnel accused of soliciting bribes from them.
Despite Frimpong’s denial of the allegations, asserting that his comments during a two-hour meeting with small-scale miners were misconstrued, he was apprehended and subsequently released on bail following an interrogation.
On Channel One TV’s “The Big Issue” on Saturday, Dr Osae-Kwapong indicated that the measures were important to show that the country condemned such acts.
“…Whether we are taking it (the PC’s comments) or not at least we heard what we heard and reasonable minds can conclude that these comments were very unfortunate comments to have been made.
“Especially for me in my opinion, especially coming from an aspiring Member of Parliament (MP)…I think it wasn’t the best. It was very distasteful. I am glad that he was invited to come and explain why he said what he said.”
“And hopefully everything will be clarified and what if there are consequences for some of the things that he said. I think it is only right that he faces those consequences. Whether it is a matter of law or even a matter of politics. That I would hope that these are not the comments, the behaviours that we reward in terms of electing to parliament.”
“There has to be some consequences for it to show that we condemn these things,” he stated.
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