The Minority in Parliament has called for the immediate arrest of Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong, in connection with the gruesome murder of undercover journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale.
Condemning the barbaric slaying of the young and budding undercover journalist, they believed that the Assin Central member of parliament must have played a role in the death of the young journalist.
Hussein-Suale who worked closely with ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas was killed on Wednesday, January 16, by unknown gunmen whilst he drove home.
He was shot three times, twice in the chest and another in the neck, dying instantly, according to the police.
It comes months after the governing New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin Central splashed his pictures on TV calling for retribution over his role in a football corruption probe.
Addressing the heinous murder of Hussein-Suale on Monday in Accra, the Minority spokesperson on Defence and Interior, James Agalga condemned the Assin Central lawmaker for exposing the deceased journalist to harm thus called for the immediate arrest of Mr Agyaong for subsequent prosecution.
“Mr Agyapong’s conduct and the obvious lack of action by the law enforcement agencies leads to only one conclusion that Mr Agyapong is above the laws of Ghana and he enjoys immunity, free from prosecution.
We expect the police to act as quickly as possible in arresting the Assin Central MP for questioning.
"Nevertheless, we call on the law enforcement agencies to promptly cause Mr. Agyapong’s arrest and prosecute him for his actions. We also call on Nana Akufo-Addo’s government to roundly condemn the conduct of Mr. Agyapong," the statement said.
"The Minority wishes to stress that it is most embarrassing that Kennedy Agyapong has been allowed to run amok all these years with Parliament and State institutions doing absolutely nothing about his misconduct and reckless utterances only for a US Congressman, Henry C. Hank Johnson, Jr. to demand action from the US State Department. We hereby declare our full support for any sanctions on Kennedy Agyapong as the US Government may deem fit," they added.
Read Below A copy Of The Statement.
MINORITY PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE ASSASINATION OF AHMED HUSSEIN-SUALE AND OTHER RELATED MATTERS AS READ IN PARLIAMENT TODAY THE 21ST OF JANUARY, 2019 BY JAMES AGALGA, THE HONOURABLE RANKING MEMBER ON THE DEFENCE AND INTERIOR COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENT
The Minority in Parliament is grateful to you for honouring our invitation. May we afford this opportunity to wish you and the larger Ghanaian populace a happy new year even though the year has not began on a happy note.
On the night of Wednesday 16th January, 2019, Ahmed Hussien-Suale, who was driving in Madina close to his family house, was shot three times by two men on a motorbike who pulled alongside his car. He died almost instantly. He was only 33 years.
Ahmed was a member of Tiger Eye P.I., headed by the celebrated and internationally acclaimed investigative journalist, Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas. Ahmed was a lead investigator in the lastest work of Tiger Eye P.I titled “Number 12 – When Greed and Corruption Become the Norm”. The documentary investigated corruption into African Football with greater focus on Ghana. Ahmed was assigned to specifically investigate Former Ghana Football Association President, Mr. Kwesi Nyantakyi. The undercover report led to a lifetime ban from all football related activities imposed on Mr. Kwasi Nyantakyi by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Independent Ethics Committee of FIFA. It also led to the dissolution of the GFA and the sanctioning of several football officials across the African continent.
Ahmed was also part of the BBC team of journalists that investigated the selling of human parts in Malawi – an investigation that nearly got Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his team killed as residents of a suburb in that country mistook them for ritual killers.
The Minority hereby condemns in the strongest possible terms the barbaric slaying of the young and budding undercover journalist.
Our heartfelt condolences to his immediate family, his colleagues at Tiger Eye P.I. and the entire media fraternity home and abroad.
This cold blooded killing of Hussein-Suale is undoubtedly a catastrophic attack on press freedom and free expression in Ghana.
Nevertheless, we appeal to the media in Ghana not to be intimidated or cowed by the dastardly act. A befitting tribute to Ahmed Hussein-Suale would be a resolve to become even more courageous and selfless in exposing the ills of society and those who perpetrate them.
Ladies and Gentlemen, perhaps never in the history of Ghana have we attracted such an avalanche of negative international media coverage. Indisputably, our international image is currently in tatters.
The global media from the BBC, CNN, VOA, RFI, Aljazeera, Africa News, Reuters, Associated Press, Washington Post, The Guardian, New York Times and a whole host of others have all been unanimous in highlighting this brutal killing that has soiled Ghana's human rights record.
In the same vein, virtually every reputable local and international organization have ensured their voices have been loud and clear in condemnation. Some of these are:
United Nations
FIFA
Transparency International
Ghana Integrity Initiative
International Press Institute
Global Witness
Ghana Journalist Association.
ASEPA
UNESCO
International Federation of Journalists- IFJ
Media Foundation for West Africa -MFWA
United Press for Development Network- UPDN
Press for Justice Coalition- PJC
West Africa Journalist Association- WAJA
Global Investigative Journalists Network- GIJN
Notable personalities such as former presidents J.J. Rawlings and J.D. Mahama have been decisive in their condemnation.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We recall that upon the advertisement by Tiger Eye P.I. of the airing of the documentary entitled - “Number 12 - When Greed and Corruption Become the Norm” – the NPP Member of Parliament for Assin Central Constituency, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, commenced a tirade against Mr. Anas in particular and his Tiger Eye P.I. team members. Mr. Agyapong vowed to destroy Mr. Anas and his team if they dared to air the documentary. Mr. Anas called off Mr. Agyapong’s bluff and proceeded to air the documentary in various locations in Ghana and on local and international media.
Mr. Agyapong then went further and splashed pictures purporting to be the image of Anas on Net 2 TV (which he owns) and on the Internet and, also invited the general public to cause harm to Mr. Anas for monetary compensation.
Further, Mr. Agyapong splashed pictures known to be the image and likeness of Ahmed in like manner and incited the public to visit violence on Ahmed for monetary reward. Indeed, Mr. Agyapong declared that he was prepared to pay any member of the public who would beat up Ahmed. Mr. Agyapong then proceeded to indicate the location of Ahmed’s residence.
By section 20(1) of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), a person who, directly or indirectly, instigate, commands, counsel, procures, solicit, or in any manner purposely aids, facilitates, encourages, or promotes, whether by a personal act or presence or otherwise, and a person who does an act for the purposes of aiding, facilitating, encouraging, or promoting the commission of criminal offence by any other person, whether known or unknown, certain, or uncertain, commits the criminal offence of abetting that criminal offence, and of abetting the other person in respect of that criminal offence.
It is on this basis that we state that Mr. Agyapong appears to bear some criminal responsibility for the death of Ahmed, and he also bears criminal responsibility for instigating the public to beat up Ahmed and cause harm to Mr. Anas for monetary reward.
Mr. Agyapong appears to have abetted several offences ranging from assault, causing harm, causing harm with the use of an offensive weapon, attempted murder and murder by instigating the public by reaching out to the public to visit the indicated violence on them. And by the operation of our law, the offence of abetting a crime through instigating violence is committed even if no member of the public lifts a finger in furtherance of the invitation.
Mr. Agyapong should have promptly been arrested and prosecuted for the public instigation of violence on the two men. This was never done.
Sadly, in this case, Ahmed was shot dead in cold blood. One cannot help but point to Mr. Agyapong’s express and televised instigation of the public to visit violence on Ahmed for monetary reward.
And in a public show of impunity and bravado the morning immediately following Ahmed’s assassination, Mr. Agyapong went from one radio station to another daring law enforcement agencies to arrest him. He went to the extent of preposterously accusing Mr. Anas and the lawyer for Tiger Eye P.I. of complicity in Ahmed’s death while raining insults and invectives on them.
Shockingly, Mr. Agyapong was allowed to fly out of the country, without being apprehended, on that very day on an Emirates flight headed to Dubai and possible onward journey.
The conduct of Mr. Agyapong could not have escaped the notice of law enforcement agencies and the government of President Akufo-Addo. And till date, he has not been invited by the Police for questioning. We find this situation deeply worrying and uncharacteristic of a democratic and civilised country. Mr. Agyapong’s conduct, and the obvious lack of action by the law enforcement agencies leads to only one conclusion - that Mr. Agyapong is above the laws of Ghana and he enjoys impunity free from prosecution. Chillingly, the government of Nana Akufo-Addo is dead silent on the matter and has watched on as Mr. Agyapong makes nonsense of the laws of Ghana. This cannot be allowed to continue. Nana Addo must show leadership.
Nevertheless, we call on the law enforcement agencies to promptly cause Mr. Agyapong’s arrest and prosecute him for his actions. We also call on Nana Akufo-Addo’s government to roundly condemn the conduct of Mr. Agyapong.
The Minority wishes to stress that it is most embarrassing that Kennedy Agyapong has been allowed to run amok all these years with Parliament and State institutions doing absolutely nothing about his misconduct and reckless utterances only for a US Congressman, Henry C. Hank Johnson, Jr. to demand action from the US State Department. We hereby declare our full support for any sanctions on Kennedy Agyapong as the US Government may deem fit.
That notwithstanding, we would like to serve notice that when the House resumes from recess, the Minority shall commence processes to drag Kennedy Agyapong before the Privileges Committee for sanctions.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Minority also expects investigations to be broadened to ensure that all the perpetrators of this atrocious crime are brought to justice.
We must caution Government against treating this matter like earlier investigations that have been shabbily handled with their outcomes remaining what is at best a mystery. Ghanaians and the international community would not accept that. We insist that the Akufo-Addo administration must sharply depart from the inglorious examples it set in the BOST Scandal, the Deputy Chiefs of Staff Allegations, the Australia Visa Scandal and ironically, the Anas Number 12 investigations.
May Allah keep the soul of Mr. Ahmed Hussien-Suale and give peace to his family.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, apart from the gruesome murder of Ahmed Hussien-Suale, the Mankralo of Prampram, Nene Atsuare Benta III was also killed by gunmen at Dodowa on Thursday, 13th December, 2018. Before his murder, Nene Atsuare Benta III had received death threats from his assailants.
On New Year’s Eve, Joseph Migal Jinjer, a senior staff of the Ghana Water Company Limited whilst on his way to celebrate the New Year at his hometown in the Bunkpurugu District was pulled out of his cross country vehicle and shot dead by unknown assailants.
Furthermore, the Marketing and Public Affairs Manager of the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority (GPHA) in charge of Tema Port, Josephine Asante was stabbed to death at her residence in Tema, Community 25 on Saturday the 12th of January, 2019.
A noticeable trend about all the murders alluded to is that the assailants never made away with or stole any property belonging to their victims. In the circumstance, reasonable minds ought to conclude that the killings recorded in recent times are “Contract Killings”.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, ever since President Akufo-Addo became President, the security situation in the country has become very porous to the extent that Ghanaians are now living in perpetual fear.
For instance, according to statistics from the Ghana Police Service, incidents of robbery cases recorded at the end of the year 2017 were 1,772 as compared to 1,397 in 2016. This figure represents a 27% increase. The situation did not improve in 2018 as robbery cases alone hit 968 in the 1st quarter.
Given the difficult times we find ourselves as a country with regards to the management of our security, we call on the President as the Commander-In-Chief of our Armed Forces and the Chairman of the National Security Council to put in place measures to stem the alarming incidents of contract killings and robberies in the country. Such measures should include an assurance and concrete interventions from the President that will rid our country of the growing sense of insecurity.
May God Bless and Help Ghana
Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
hahaha, can we be serious in this country for once? why not allow the security services to come out with their findings before jumping to conclusions? the posture of this minority looks like they are in Anas' pocket. he has their balls in their his palm so they are being careful. Anyway, I hope the police will ignore all these social media investigators and do their own investigations. by the same, someone shd tell whoever supplies the drug these ndc guys are using to stop. we don't have enough psychiatric facilities in the country. that stuff is too strong. they have never been consistent bcos of this drug.
Oh my NDC has sunk so low, why a party like NDC allow a drunkard turn a politician to conduct a press conference.So don't we have any body who is expert in security to advice the party.When somebody is murdered, initially all the people in the country are potential suspect.Once you are calling the police to arrest and prosecute the MP Hon. Kennedy Agyapong then you are indirectly telling the police to stop their investigation because you have found the culprit.The NDC party started sinking low in esteem when the babies with sharp teeth took over. Where are the Kwesi Botchwey's,Mike Quizo',Ken Dzirasa,Ibn Chambas,Huudu Yahaya,Nuamah Donkor,Emma Michell,Brookman Amissah etc.I call these noble men and women to come and rescue the party from low esteem and the money concious leaders they are having at the moment.For two years the party has made more than 50 unnecessary press conferences.Wake up NDC.If we leave it for Sammy Gyamfi,Asafo Adyaye ,Brogya Genfi, those who could not find a place in Kumasi and decend to Accra to find shelter with utterrances of Asiedu Nkestia then the party will be in opposition for 40 years in opposition.
NDC POLITICAL PARTY IS NOT GOOD PARTY THAT PEOPLE SHOULD JOINED AT ALL.
May God bless and help Ghana but pun1$h these id10t1c d1$honest f-001$ with all the m1sfortune that they deserve for attempting to deceive Ghanaians. The NDC's myopic and narrow interpretations of section 20(1) of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) is an indication of intellectual 1mp0tence and def1ciency. Suhuyini was on Newsfile this Saturday trying m1serably to regurgitate section 20(1) of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). And the tree lawyers on the panel exposed his 1gn0rance and unsurprisingly the NDC comes out with this. $ham£fully, they quote the American congressman's too known letter as basis. Forgetting that, Donald Trump the most powerful man in the world and the president of this 1mb£c1le congressman, has openly declared his support to the Saudi crown prince Mohamed bin Salman (MBS), who the smoking gun points at to be the mastermind of Jamel Khassoghi's murder. Please Ghana, let's be serious and see the current leaders of the NDS for who they are. W0rth1e$$, clu£l£$$ and utter waS=3 of space and time.
I do not like Kennedy Agyapong. I mean the man is a loose canon ;a narcissistic self preening pompous ars3-hole but this one paa de3 minority you are not using your brains and are merely playing to the gallery.I am almost sure that Agyapong had nothing to do with this death.I mean what has he to gain from it. It was s-t-u-pid for him to expose the guy and to say the things he said.A prime suspect should be Nyantakyie. Why is nobody mentioning him? After all he lost the most from that expose.He should be questioned. As for Kennedy Agyapong he is just a windbag,an attention seeker, Has there been a week in which this man's name has not come up for one thing or the other?
the most us3l3ss and stup1?d group of people to ever exist is this ndc. why is everyone interfering with the investigations? this n0ns3ns3 started with Anas and his lawyer. i have no doubts this case will end up just like the other murder cases. what kind of country is this?
a matter of security. Ghanaians are with the Minority on this. The election vigilante group by the government was not disbanded and these are the relics. I blame the president squarely for all the unstable country we find ourselves. Vigilante group stormed a court to set their guys who were on trial free. Hon. Kennedy Agyapong dared the national security minister not make any arrests. The same man, called on the public to cause harm, to an investigative journalist for reward; gave out his bio data and location of his residence, the police did nothing. Now the guy is dead. The next morning Ken is on radio insulting and daring every body and even hinted that he was travelling. The police did nothing. Mr. IGP: the above could not escaped your audience?? Mr. President: Are you in-charge? Are you the Commander In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces??? Fellow media men and religious bodies: Do you care???? Is this the freedom and justice our fore fathers promised????? IS THIS A DEMOCRATIC STATE???????? ARE THESE INDEED THE APPOSTLES FOR THE FIGHT OF CORRUPTION??????? WELL, AN ANTI-CORRUPTION CRUSADER HAVE LOST HIS LIFE IN BARBARIC CIRCUMSTANCECS, WHAT YOU ALL DOING ABOUT IT???????????
Oh Minority, you left something out....you deliberately forgot to mention that The President also condemned the sad event and instructed the police to start a serious investigation. Again, since you have zeroed in on Ken Agyapong as the prime and ultimate suspect, why don't you give us the proof or evidence to that effect? And did I read that this murder is the lowest point in the history of our dear nation? Hmmm! Once upon a time under your watch a sitting MP was killed in him BEDROOM and till date.......Again, under your selective watch, a sitting president died in cold blood to the extent that you missed your way trying to rush him to the 37 military hospital in the BUCKET of a FORD PICKUP. Anyway I understand your behavior because you should be heard even if you don't make sense. Go ahead because speech is FREE.
DOUBLE STANDARD BE THIS, JUST LAST WEEK THE GHANA READ ABOUT NDC SAYING THE STATE SECURITY APARATUS SHOULD NOT USE AGYAPONG AS A SCAPEGOAT WHAT HAS HAPPENED THAT HAS NECESSITATED THIS U-TURN?, POSSIBLY MINORUTY AND NDC IS CONFUSED IF NOT THEN THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT. SHOW RESPOSIBILITY MINORITY
A headless MP called James Agalga, who cannot even reason to the level of a fowl calling for someone's head. A complete brain-dead MP whose thinking goes not beyond common sense.