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The Member of Parliament for the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency, Emmanuel Agyarko, is of the view that the persons who lynched the late military officer, Captain Maxwell Adam Mahama, might have acted under the influence of alcohol or Indian hemp.

According to him, he cannot comprehend how a normal person would hit his fellow human being with a cement block with the intent of squeezing his life out of him. Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Mr. Agyarko further called for medical examination of the suspects arrested to ascertain whether substance abuse was at play.

“As a former Narcotics control officer…I will suggest that all these people who are picked up, maybe they should conduct some test on them. I’m beginning to think that there is so much substance abuse in this country.

Alcohol is too cheap in this country. Wee is too common in this country. I think that we must begin to look into these things…I can’t see how me, a normal person who is not under the influence of anything will take a block and hit a man on his head,” the outspoken MP added. Capt. Mahama was lynched and partly burnt by some residents of Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region after they mistook him for an armed robber.

The residents in a video which went viral on social media hit the officer with cement blocks, clubs and other wooden objects until he passed out. The late military officer and his team from the 5th Infantry battalion, had been deployed to the area to fight illegal mining. So far, about 22 people including a twelve year old have been arrested in connection with the murder.

The late officer’s burial has been set for June 9, 2017. Joblessness partly to blame Mr. Agyarko also believes that, a lot of the residents joined in the lynching of the Capt. Mahama because they are idle and have no jobs to do. “This rallying of the mob couldn’t have happened so easily.

You begin to wonder about what the people in the villages do. I begin to think that because of underemployment and nothing to do, people hang around and they become easily rallied. People are not occupied enough.

This country has some major problem and crisis this government must tackle. Government must create a situation where people will be busy or be employed to make them too busy to engage in vigilantism,” he added.