‘Resignation not enough’ – NDC, OccupyGhana want Carlos Ahenkorah prosecuted

The main opposition, National Democratic Congress, and pressure group, OccupyGhana, have called for further action against a deputy minister who has had to resign after breaching coronavirus safety protocols.

General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketsiah, popularly known as General mosquito said Ghana’s laws governing COVID-19 does not include resignation from office.

While OccupyGhana has warned that “if no steps are taken against Mr Ahenkorah, it will cast the government as not just being hypocritical, but as being incapable of keeping the citizenry safe and incompetent to enforce laws it has made.”

The former deputy Trade and Industry Minister who is also the Tema West NPP MP had visited registration centres in his constituency, despite being told by doctors to self-isolate.

His actions sparked controversy on social media with many calling for his dismissal

Few hours after his dismissal, the pressure group has invited the police to prosecute him and the NPP to withdraw his candidature in the 2020 general elections.

While wide sections of social media has welcomed the move, there is growing clamour that a resignation is not enough.

Some cite a pastor was sentenced for breaching restrictions on public gathering last April while on June 9, some 10 persons were fined a combined 120,000 cedis for same.

In default, they were to spend four years in jail.

It is against this backdrop that the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has said Ghanaians expect more than a resignation.

“Your ministers having tested positive, some of them are going round registration centres spreading COVID but they’re not being prosecuted. So we’re calling for the prosecution of Carlos Ahenkorah,”he said.

He added, “resignation is not part of our laws. It is not part of the COVID protocols. If they have taken that administrative step, fine, we agree. But, we are waiting to see that there are prosecuted the same way that the ordinary man on the street has been prosecuted. They must prosecute Carlos Ahenkorah”.

 

Read full statement by OccupyGhana below:

OccupyGhana®️ joins countless Ghanaians in registering our chagrin and disappointment with the behaviour and actions of Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Mr Carlos Ahenkorah, MP.

He has admitted that after testing positive for COVID-19, and before obtaining a subsequent negative test, he recklessly and callously put himself in the public space, visiting registration centres in the Tema West Constituency.

By this, he put his fellow citizens at such high risk of contracting the coronavirus disease. As a minister of state of a government that is battling hard against this pandemic, he has shown a remarkable lack of good sense on the social and physical distancing that is required by law, on the pain of criminal prosecution.

His actions show gross disrespect to the pronouncements of the President concerning keeping the populace safe, and his behaviour makes a mockery of any enactment’s government has made in the fight against the coronavirus.

This is especially worrying in the wake of the political primaries, which in the main, also ignored the law and common sense of social and physical distancing, and the obvious struggle of the Electoral Commission to enforce these rules in the ongoing voter registration.

We fear that the combination of these events, and the irresponsible conduct of government officials such as Mr Ahenkorah will lead to an increase in infections and possibly, deaths.

These are the reasons why we find the deputy Minister’s conduct despicable, outrageous and selfish. This conduct and his defensive nonchalance are not befitting of a person occupying the high offices of a Deputy Minister.

If no steps are taken against Mr Ahenkorah, it will cast the government as not just being hypocritical, but as being incapable of keeping the citizenry safe and incompetent to enforce laws it has made. Many have been taken to task for doing way less than Mr. Ahenkora has done, including not wearing a mask while driving alone.

We therefore respectfully call upon the President to remove him from office forthwith. We also call on the police to investigate his actions, and if found to have breached the law, to prosecute him. We also call on the New Patriotic Party to withdraw him as their candidate for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

 

We conclude by urging the government and the Electoral Commission to ensure that participants in the ongoing voters’ registration fully comply with the COVID19 security, health, safety, and personal hygiene protocols.

For God and Country

OccupyGhana®️