BHC/IGP Saga: She Implied “Police Is Lawless” – Kwamena Duncan
Former Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan has castigated British High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson over her tweet on the arrest of Oliver Baker-Vormawor, the convener for FixtheCountry Movement.
In the tweet, she said “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…”
But the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Dampare Akuffo has warned her to stay clear off the country’s internal matters.
In a strong-worded statement, the IGP told Miss Harriet Thompson “to learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you”.
“Ordinarily, the Ghana Police Service would not have responded to comments such as yours, obviously made from either a biased or uninformed position. However, we have learnt from previous, painful experience that it has not been helpful to ignore such misguided, unwarranted and biased comments intended to tarnish the reputation of the Ghana Police Service and that of our country.
“For the moment, we would recommend a Ghanaian saying that might guide you in your diplomatic engagements. The saying goes: ‘di wo fie asem’ – it means learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you.”
“What is more, we consider your tweet 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”, excerpts of the statement read.
Reading the tweet on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” programme, Kwamena Duncan found it “very irritating” and cautioned her to remain in the boundaries of her diplomacy.
“My goodness! British High Commissioner; a diplomat!! I’m sure she doesn’t have a good understanding of what she is here for”, he said.
Kwamena believed the British High Commissioner lack understanding of her mandate, so sought to educate her saying “you are a diplomat. First and foremost, you must understand what it is to be a diplomat…A diplomat has all kinds of immunities. They have what they even call the diplomatic bag; a country has no power even to search the diplomatic bag. All kinds of immunities, that is what the world has agreed on, then the reciprocal is that you don’t go and meddle. That is the reciprocal that, giving you all these things, you don’t go and poke your nose into the internal affairs of the receiving country. You don’t do that”.
As if to borrow the words of the IGP, Kwamena asked Miss Thompson to stop poking her nose in the internal affairs of the country.
“What this tweet, what it meant was that the Police institution was being lawless. That how could they go ahead and arrest an individual who was already in the jaws of the law?…Apart from it offending us, which was imperialist, neo-colonialist and unacceptable; she sought by that tweet to bring the entire institution down.”