Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is convinced the entire drama surrounding the arrest, detention and subsequent release of the Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Koku Anyidoho would have been avoided had the media exercised some level of responsibility.
“The Happy FM host should have terminated the interview,” he said on Joy FM’s Newsfile programme, Saturday.
He was speaking on the arrest of the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC Koku Anyidoho who has been cautioned for causing fear and alarm as well as treason felony.
Mr Anyidoho in an interview on Accra based Happy FM stated president Nana Akufo-Addo, like his father, will also be overthrown, this time through a civil revolt.
"On January 13, 1972, a certain Col Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a movement that removed the Progress Party from power. Busia was the Prime Minister and Akufo-Addo’s father was the ceremonial president. Somebody should tell Nana Akufo-Addo that history has a very interesting way of repeating itself. There will be a civil revolt,” he said.
He was picked up in dramatic fashion at the International Press Centre on Tuesday sent to the police CID and later detained at the BNI for 48 hours.
His house was subjected to a search; his phone was taken over by the power of a court for the police CID to snoop through it.
He was released on Thursday but will return to the Police CID on Tuesday to assist with investigations. It is not clear yet if the police will charge him on the caution statement they gave him.
Discussing the matter on Newsfile, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the comment was in bad state and dissociated the NDC from it.
He stated however politicians are sometimes overtaken by the situations and circumstances especially on campaign platforms which force them to make some of the unsavoury comments.
Referring to the famous “gbeshie” comment by former Attorney General Ayikoi Otoo, the MP for the North Tongu said his Deputy General Secretary may have been overcome by that same spirit in the interview.
Otoo in the landmark election petition case at the Supreme Court in 2013 pleaded with the justices not to sentence his client who had been charged with criminal contempt.
He said his client Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie had been overtaken by some spirit he referred to as gbeshie which pushed him into making the unsavoury comment he made.
On Newsfile, Okudzeto Ablakwa was quick to add that the gbeshie spirit appears to have attacked politicians from across the divide and called on the media to be more responsible to keep politicians in check.
However when Koku Anyidoho was called into the programme he disputed claims the party had dissociated itself from the comment he made.
He would not also comment on whether or not he regretted making such comments. He deferred the question to his lawyers.
He however heaped lots of praises on the police and BNI for their “professional conduct.”
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