The leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti Region has criticized the police’s decision to declare Alhaji Mustapha Alhasan, its Manhyia South Constituency Organiser, wanted.
The party perceives this action as an overreaction and a diversionary tactic from the country’s current hardships.
Alhaji Alhasan became a person of interest for the Ashanti Region Police Command following his inflammatory comments.
A widely circulated video shows Alhaji Alhasan fervently opposing the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and threatening violence if they attempt to rig the elections.
In the video, he even contemplates engaging in potentially fatal violent clashes to ensure the victory of the NDC’s flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama.
However, Dr. Frank Amoakohene, the Ashanti Regional Secretary of the NDC, argued in an interview on Eyewitness News with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Citi FM on Monday that the police were biased against the NDC.
He clarified that Alhaji Alhasan’s comments were a response to some provocative remarks made by an NPP member during a conversation.
Dr. Amoakohene also questioned the rationale behind the police’s decision to declare the party’s well-known Manhyia South Constituency Organiser wanted.
“It is an exaggeration, and it can be likened to killing a farmer with a sledgehammer. And this is just a purported action to divert the attention of Ghanaians from the hardship that is going on in the [country], because it takes two to tango, and it takes two to have a conversation. It was a conversation between an NDC person and an NPP person. They managed to get the video out which has the NPP person’s comment edited out of the video, and then now you declare an officer wanted without having to resort to the institution to produce the officer.”
“So if you know you can find the person, then you should publish the person’s name without associating him with the NDC but if you want to associate him with the NDC then you should come to the regional leadership that we have come across a video from an officer of the party and the police would want to have a conversation with him. Then the regional leadership can produce the officer for you. But you have attached the NDC to the officer, you didn’t come to the regional leadership and yet declared him wanted on social media. But from my understanding, you only declare someone wanted when the person cannot be found or the person has gone into hiding. This is an officer that you in the police you know, and he is a tailor to most of the policemen, and it is not as though he is even a stranger or somebody you don’t know,” he noted.