Police invite Rev. Owusu Bempah, Bugri Naabu for alleged inciteful comments
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service has invited two individuals, the General Overseer of Glorious Word Power Ministry International, Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah, and the Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Daniel Bugri Naabu, to assist in investigations into alleged inciteful comments.
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Whereas Rev Owusu-Bempah is to report to the CID headquarters, Mr Naabu is to report to the Northern Regional Police CID.
Rev. Owusu-Bempah is reported in the media to have said that some politicians, including NPP members, were conniving to kill the presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during his electioneering.
Rev. Owusu-Bempah is also quoted to have said that: “On election day, there will be a lot of gunshots at NPP strongholds and many will sustain injuries, while others will lose their lives. The NPP must beware”.
Mr Naabu, on the other hand, is reported to have told party supporters at Savelugu that the party would deploy “Macho” men to every single polling station in the region to prevent ballot boxes from being snatched by NDC supporters.
Mr Naabu is also alleged to have asked NPP supporters to chase and beat up NDC supporters who would snatch ballot boxes on the election day.
Fear and panic
The Director-General of Police Operations, Commissioner of Police (COP), Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, told the Daily Graphic in an interview yesterday that the fact that the stakes in the elections were high did not mean that individuals irrespective of their status, should incite others to violence or create an environment of fear for peace-loving Ghanaians to panic.
“We will not allow people to beat war drums and incite some people to lead the country to war,” he stated.
He said Ghana had since 1992 successfully held six elections and had become an envy of many countries in the world.
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In line with that, Mr Yohuno said the Police Administration had directed all police commands to deal with any politician who might want to use the electioneering to foment trouble.
In dealing with such persons, however, he said, the police command must ensure that it was done within the remits of the law.
Mr Yohuno said the directive of the Police Administration was to prevent politicians and individuals from creating fear and panic and, thereby, discouraging the electorate from turning out to vote.
Firm on the ground
The Director-General in charge of Operations said the security agencies were firmly on the ground to deal with any troublemakers.
He said Nana Akufo-Addo and all the presidential candidates, as well as Ghanaians, were safe as the security agencies were doing everything possible to provide them with the protection they deserved.
Mr Yohuno said if any individual picked up information about a threat on an individual or politician for that matter, that piece of information should be passed onto the security agencies for action.
He explained that the resort to the media would not deal with a threat to life and property.
