Social media users have gone agog over the friction between the Ghana Police Service and the British High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson.
Ms Thompson on May 17, expressed her interest in the case of a #FixTheCountry Convener, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, following his second arrest.
In a tweet, she wrote, ”Oliver Barker Vormawor, the convener of #FixTheCountry Movement, arrested again, I understand, for a motoring offense on his way to court. I’ll be interested to see where this goes.”
Oliver Barker Vormawor, convener of #FixTheCountry movement, arrested again, I understand for a motoring offence on his way to court. I’ll be interested to see where this goes... https://t.co/iK5hZDZUln
— Harriet Thompson (@HCThompson001) May 17, 2022
But in a sharp rebuttal, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) George Akuffo Dampare asked her to mind her own business.
He stressed that “the tweet is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country.”
Subsequently, the Diplomat said she did not expect any reaction from the IGP at all.
According to her, she meant no malice with her tweet.
“Ghana is a peace-loving nation where people do have the right to express themselves, where they do have the right to come and protest things that matter to them.
“A tweet like that is not going to be the thing that will get people onto the streets, in my view. If I had thought that there was the remotest chance of that, I wouldn’t be tweeting things like that. That is clearly not my intention,” she said on Accra-based GH One.
Netizens have not gone silent since.
As some tweeps sided with IGP Dampare, others criticised him, adding that he was "rude".
We need to recover our right to dissent in Ghana.
Dampare's long response to the British High Commissioner, should get you concerned if you care about Freedom of speech and expression.
Free speech has been one of the chief casualties of worsening situations in this country.— Marreka Ⓜ️ (@Ebenezer_Peegah) May 31, 2022
Over 98% of Ghana police officers don’t know the constitution and the protocols in this country. How can IGP Dampare can write such a rude letter to the British high commissioner?
— With All Due Respect (@cdzas) May 31, 2022
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