Mahama, Bryan comments failed to pass criminal test threshold – IGP

The Ghana Police Service has described as ‘not criminal’, comments that were made by the Agric Minister, Bryan Acheampong; Former President, John Mahama; and Chairman of the NDC, Aseidu Nketiah.

The Inspector General of Police, Dr. Akuffo Dampare, said this following a meeting held with the leaders of both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

It will be recalled that the Minister for Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, during the NPP’s Arise and Build Health Walk in Kwahu, was captured saying that the governing National Patriotic Party (NPP) will not hand power over to the opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, in 2024.

The former president on a campaign platform is also reported to have said in 2020 that the NDC was ready to match the NPP ‘boot-for-boot’ and in another instance, that the upcoming elections will be a do-or-die affair.

On his part, the chairman of the NDC in his victory speech, was also captured saying that the NDC is prepared to sacrifice everything, including their lives, to achieve victory.

Ever since, both parties and other individuals and groups have written to or called on the police CID, to arrest the people involved for making what they describe as inciteful remarks.

It is on the back of this that the IGP said the comments as made by the politicians, failed the criminal threshold test thereby making it unlawful to arrest the persons involved as it’s been demanded by both parties.

In a newspaper report by the DailyGuide, on April 20, 2023, stated that the police briefed both political parties on initiatives it has taken to ensure a safe election environment leading to the 2024 election.

Key among them are the National Election Security Task Force Secretariat (NEST) and the Legal Unit to probe all politically related incidents to determine if it warrants arrest or not.