A former military officer has said the inability to deal with the ethnocentric comments of Adansi Asokwa MP, Kobina Tahir Hammond prevents government from reprimanding others.

Colonel Festus Aboagye (Rtd) said the only way to gain moral ground is to prosecute and punish all propagators of electoral violence and hate speech regardless of their party affiliations.

“Because candidates have offended the law and they were not dealt with, where is the basis now to deal with any candidate who resorts to the use of fiery language?” he said.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, he stated that government’s failure to punish such people in the past gives more people the confidence to spew such comments which incite violence without any fear.

He cited K.T Hammond who was recently received severe criticism for allegedly describing people from the Volta Region as foreigners.

A claim which he vehemently denied and refused to apologise for, insisted that he was only referring to the Togolese who had infiltrated their region to register for voters' ID cards under the pretext of being Ghanaians. 

“The element of hate speech may not necessarily against any law but if you go into the broader body of laws in this country, inciteful language is somewhere in the criminal offenses act. I believe there will be a basis, there is always a basis”.

“The challenge that we have is that you cannot deal with Chief Azorka if you have not dealt with KT Hammond,” he stated.

Chief Sofo Azorka was recently seen in a video instructing some sympathisers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to "finish" anyone who they see holding books in which personal details of registered voters were being recorded.

According to him, the fact that the ‘big fishes’ are left untouched while their followers are arrested makes it difficult to arrest any others who may follow that trajectory.

He challenged government to take up the task to deal with persons who engage in any form of hate speech.

"Because charity begins at home, it starts now from the government in power which must exercise that kind of political will and commitment to bring to book its own members who violate the law, then it creates the ground for that government to deal with others," he told host of Joy SMS, Winston Amoah.

Meanwhile, he warned against the deployment of the military in the forthcoming general elections as was done during the voters' registration exercise.