The Dansoman Divisional Police Command is in a fix as to whether or not to remove posters displayed on its walls by an aspiring parliamentary candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Prince Derick Adjei, who is contesting in the party’s parliamentary primaries in the Ablekuma West constituency of the Greater Accra Region, has displayed two huge banners on the walls of the police station to announce his candidacy to NDC delegates, to the chagrin of residents of the area, particularly the ruling party’s opponents.
He deliberately added President John Mahama’s banner in order to ‘tie’ the hands of the police from taking any action.
Some residents are questioning why the law enforcement agents could allow Prince Derick Adjei, then spokesperson for the Ga-Dangme Youth Association, to use the walls of the station for his campaign.
Interestingly, DAILY GUIDE’s checks revealed that there appeared not to be any clear-cut law preventing the public from placing advertisements on police or other security facilities.
When the paper visited the police station at Dansoman Control, the banners were still intact; and Derick remains the only aspirant who has taken that step.
Lack Of Respect
However, when contacted, ACP Antwi Tabi, the Divisional Commander, claimed he had taken notice of the banners but said he was yet to come across any law that prevents people from indulging in such an activity.
“As you can see, there is no notice of ‘Post No Bill’ on the walls. Being a public building, I think that people have a right to do some of these things when they are not infringing the law.”
He said his only worry was that Prince Derick Adjei did not even have the courtesy and respect to “approach me as the officer-in-charge to ask for the space” when displaying the banners.
He also said that some of the ruling party’s rivals had approached him and asked for space to place their banners, saying, “Last week one elderly man who said he was from the NPP came to us and expressed interest in placing a banner on our walls.”
Prince Derick Adjei is noted for his controversial statements and ethnocentric posture.
Ga Land Issue
As spokesperson for a shadowy group called the Ga-Dangme Youth Association, Prince Derick Adjei – who had just crossed carpet from the now defunct Dr Obed Asamoah’s Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) to join the NDC – led a group of youth to demand that then out-going President John Agyekum Kufuor should not be given any office on Ga land – a move the then incoming National Security Coordinator, Larry Gbevlo Lartey (now out of office), gleefully endorsed.
For his reward, Derick Adjei was appointed a Deputy Coordinator of the National Youth Authority by the Mills administration.
Public Uproar
He again caused public uproar in 2010 when he claimed that he had a list of NPP parliamentarians who were engaging in homosexual activities, and even threatened to publish the list.
The controversial NDC chap, who was a member of the government’s communication team, was guest of Asempa FM’s ‘Ekosii Sen’ programme on Wednesday, September 15, 2010. He said on the programme, “There is a list that I’m going to put out and I hope (that) the NPP will be intact after that because if they want to play a certain game, we will all play by their rules and even by their rules they will lose because they only pride themselves in lies.”
But it later turned out to be a hoax.
Call For Dismissal
As a result, then Deputy Majority Chief Whip in Parliament, George Kuntu Blankson, called for the immediate dismissal of Derrick Adjei as the coordinator of the youth in the country, insisting that his (Adjei’s) public utterances did not make him a positive role model for the youth.
“If such a person is handling the affairs of the youth of this country, then you can attest to the kind of doctrine, the kind of ideas that he will propagate. It will be against the ‘Better Ghana Agenda,’” Mr Blankson, then NDC MP for Mfantseman East, had stated.
<<Print>>