The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has descended heavily on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) for his letter to the British High Commissioner after she tweeted on the arrest of social media activist, Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor.
The NDC says Dr. George Akuffo Dampare must be reminded that he is not the spokesperson of the Government of Ghana, neither does he speak for the Ghana Armed Forces.
“The NDC wishes to caution the IGP against a posture of high handedness and insipid arrogance which creates the impression that the Ghana Police Service under his leadership is above reproach,” the NDC warned in a statement issued on Tuesday, May 31 by General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia.
The party considers the IGP’s “ill-advised attack” on British envoy Harriet Thompson as rather “far-fetched” given the cordial relations between Ghana and Great Britain and even the fact that Mr Barker-Vormawor, who is at the center of the exchanges, is a student in the UK.
The NDC General Secretary recalled President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s criticism of the West in his 2021 UN Address and condemnation of Russia’s Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine in February.
“In all these instances, no one has accused Ghana of violating the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961.
“The NDC has on no occasion described these very recent examples cited above as tantamount to President Akufo-Addo meddling in the internal affairs of other nations.”
The opposition party minced no words in indicating that “it is only autocratic regimes who have no regard for democratic principles that are averse to criticism and international scrutiny”.
The NDC, therefore, called on Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry to “immediately intervene in offering diplomatic guidance to the IGP and also taking concrete steps to ease tensions”.
