By William
Yaw Owusu
Thursday
March 29, 2018
Former President John Dramani Mahama has given tacit
support for Koku Anyidoho’s comment that they (NDC) are going to stage a coup
d’état to remove democratically elected President Akufo-Addo from office.
He took to social media platform - Facebook - yesterday to indict President
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for sitting unconcerned while the police harass
opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters who gathered in front
of the Police Headquarters in Accra on Tuesday to show solidarity with Koku
Anyidoho, the party’s deputy general secretary, who is in the cooler for his
treasonable comment.
“As a party
that prides itself in the non-criminalization of speech, with a self-acclaimed
human rights activist as President, the arrest of K. Anyidoho with armed men in
the middle of a press event, is obviously disproportionate,” Mr. Mahama fired President
Akufo-Addo in a sarcastic manner, adding, “Moreso, the high-handed police
response to innocent citizens waiting at the CID HQ is condemnable.”
The ex-president, who failed to secure a second term
in office on December 7, 2016, also supported yesterday’s demonstration which
Koku Anyidoho said was going to be used to set the tone to topple President Akufo-Addo.
Support
Former President Mahama posted, “I join in declaring
#GhanaFirst as my compatriots and other democratic forces converge to
demonstrate their opposition to the Ghana/US military agreement.”
His former vice, Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur, also
attended the demonstration together with almost every NDC guru in Accra.
Although the demonstration was said to have been
organized by a group calling itself Ghana First Patriotic Front and the All
Progressive Forces, the caliber of people in attendance showed clearly that it was
an NDC agenda, using the Joint Military Cooperation Agreement as a cover-up.
Double
Standards
Mr Mahama appears to have been caught in a classic
case of double standards in his criticism of President Akufo-Addo over the alleged
treatment of the NDC supporters by the police.
When the case involving Assin Central Member of
Parliament (MP), Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, happened in 2012 and he was charged
with treason - a case which was eventually thrown out by an Accra high court -
Mr. Mahama, then vice president, had urged the security agencies to deal
ruthlessly with the MP.
Even when former President J.A. Kufuor counseled the
government to tread cautiously with the MP’s case by not using ‘sledge hammer
to kill a fly,’ then Mr Mahama responded that the NDC government “will even use
a bulldozer to kill the ant whose intention is to foment trouble.”
He said on April 23, 2012 at an NDC Tertiary
Education Institutions Network programme in the Ashanti Region, “The MP’s
comment should not be taken lightly. The whole nation must rise up and say what
he said was absolutely unacceptable. It is the silence of those who should
speak for the truth that makes evil triumph.”
In another
instance, when he was president and the police brutalized members of the ‘Let
My Vote Count Alliance (LMVC)’ who were pushing for the compilation of new
voters’ register, Mr. Mahama was silent.
Civilian
Coup d’état
In what looked like a show of bravado, Koku Anyidoho,
Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, on Monday declared on radio that he was
leading a movement to overthrow President Akufo-Addo’s government and even went
to the extent of saying that the ‘uprising’ would commence on Wednesday.
He was subsequently arrested and detained for the
treasonable comment.
Koku Anyidoho declared on Happy FM, “Somebody should tell Nana Addo (President Akufo-Addo)
that history has a very interesting way of repeating itself. On the 13th of
January, 1972, a certain Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led an insurrection
that removed the Progress Party from power. Busia was the Prime Minister and
Akufo-Addo’s father was the ceremonial President.
“There will
be a civilian coup d’état. There will be a social revolution. We are starting
it on Wednesday. The movement is starting on Wednesday. Nana Addo will have
sleepless nights. He will suffer diarrhea. He said he wanted to be president,
but we will make sure he will be fed up on the seat.”
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