Ghana’s former Ambassador to Cuba and long-time Member of Parliament (MP) for Talensi in the Upper East Region, John Akologu Tia, has blamed the Ghanaian media for exaggerating comments made by Koku Anyidoho, deputy national secretary of the National Democratic Congress which eventually landed him in the grips of police.
Speaking on DayBreak Upper East, A1 Radio’s flagshift programme, on Wednesday, former information minister said the comment by Mr. Anyidoho was a caution to the government to sit up and do the right thing but the media spin on his comment dipped him into trouble.
“I have had the privilege of listening to some of the things that were said. And I have also followed the media spin on it. I should think that it was more of the spin that dipped Koku Anyidoho in than the reality. We say governance must be transparent. We say people shouldn’t be spectators, we should be citizens. So if there are issues that are boiling and then I sound a word of caution that hey, if you don’t know, I want you remind you ABCD you have to better be careful and then somebody comes and says he said that there will be this. I mean, how?”
Impugning that the arrest of Mr. Anyidoho was meant to gag him and others who may express themselves freely on issues of governance, Mr. Akologu Tia, wondered why after leading the repeal of the criminal label law in Ghana, President Akufo-Addo would be overseeing a government that does not allow for free speech.
“So we shouldn’t’ do anything to gag anybody. In fact, President Akufo-Addo is touted to be one of the freedom fighters…I mean people for free speech. Even he led the repeal of the criminal label law and so on. Why do we want to gag people now? We shouldn’t do anything to gag people. Yes, you must be decorum but excuse me; people for political reason spin a lot of statements.” He contended.
Giving his verdict on the performance of the government, Ambassador Akologu said he is yet to see any development in the region in the Upper East Region. “This region in particular, what can we post of having received from this government? I don’t know. If somebody calls to tell me that they have done this project there, okay, I will go out [and have a look].”
He rejected an assertion that the government is only one year old and judging it based on its performance within the one year may not be fair. He said if the NPP in opposition could criticise John Mills’ administration after one year in office which was wasted on the election petition, why should the NDC not criticise the government which was formed out of the NPP.
Ambassador Akologu Tia quizzed: “The y told us that the money was here, we didn’t need to go anywhere to borrow money. So why is that one year, nothing has taken place here? When I go round my constituency, I ask the people, you said you wanted a change, you have the change, can you tell me, have they added one school in the whole of Talensi area?”
Source:TopNewsGhana.com
