Audio By Carbonatix
The Editor-in-Chief of the Ghanaian Observer newspaper, Egbert Faibille, says the Kumasi-based New Patriotic Party activist who compared the President to a chimpanzee erred.
The man, Alexander Adu Gyamfi, said during a panel discussion on Fox FM in Kumasi that the president’s images on billboards lining the streets of the Garden City packed an ugly sense of a chimpanzee-looking president.
No sooner had Adu Gyamfi made the statement than an angry mob comprising mainly supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) stormed the premises of the station apparently to beat the hell out of the opposition party member.
In a swift reaction, however, the police besieged the radio station to whisk away the man but later charged him with breaching public peace.
The charge was predicated on Section 207 of the Criminal Code Act which states in part that “a person who in public place or at a public meeting uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace or by which a breach of the peace is likely to be occasioned” commits a crime.
Mr Faibille, who was speaking on Joy FM's news analysis programme News File on Saturday, said while every Ghanaian has the right to freedom of speech, every Ghanaian must maintain a level of civility and decorum in their speeches.
“Everyday, every Ghanaian who comes from a home; growing up was taught certain basic civilities and how you should relate,” he told host Kwaku Sakyi Addo.
Mr Faibille however believed the decision of the police to prosecute the erring activist was wrong, and advised that the police rather prosecute cases that border on felony.
The “chimp name-caller” in later interviews in sections of the media said a statement by his NDC counterpart on the show that Nana Akufo-Addo looked like a frog forced him to blurt out his chimpanzee comparison.
Egbert said if the police indeed wanted to take action based on comments that breached the public peace, they should have arrested both panelists, an opinion Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako, shared.
Meanwhile the President, for want of peace, has asked the Inspector General of Police to halt the prosecution of the NPP activist, a directive police in Kumasi have obeyed.
Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
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