Senior Vice-President of IMANI Africa Kofi Bentil says top-rank officials who are perpetrators of vile comments that have the potential of disrupting peace in the country should not necessarily be subjected to court proceedings.
He said that the National Peace Council (NPC) should rather publish the names of these perpetrators on a website and shame them.
The private legal practitioner speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday said the recent comments by Abetifi Constituency MP, Bryan Acheampong, cannot be proven with evidence “beyond reasonable doubt” that they would lead to any form of chaos.
According to him, a court proceeding would be a waste of time.
“Generally speaking, you can take that with a pinch of salt as a political speech made in the heat of the moment after a political rally on a political platform.
“Yes, I have condemned it – we all should condemn it. Question – Does it rise to the level of a criminal offence for which he should be arrested, investigated prosecuted and jailed? No.
“Politicians play these things and we need to rise above them. It is morally reprehensible, it is dangerous for leaders to say things like that.
“But this is where the peace council and co should have a dishonourable list of persons who have misconducted themselves in the process of politicking or election. We can have that list somewhere.
“But it does not rise in my view to a criminal offence knowing that you have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. That one speech alone cannot be proven in a law court with evidence that it would lead to A, B, C, D beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
Earlier this week, Mr Bryan Acheampong, while addressing a group of party supporters after a health walk said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will not hand over power to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
According to the Abetifi MP, the party will use all means necessary to remain in power in next year’s general elections.
His comment has severely been criticised by the NDC and some civil society organisations.
On his part, a Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana (UG) Dr Kwame Asah-Asante said the MP’s statements should not be of huge concern to anyone.
He explained that this is because he did not say the NPP will not hand over power to the NDC when the ruling party loses the election.
He added that persons who resort to making such comments do not have any message for the electorates but only sort to use fear to change the course of the voting trajectory.
Mr Bentil said taking such persons through court processes will only be stressful and would yield no viable results.
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