The Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre, Prof. Emmanuel Kwesi Aning is calling on the Police to act with transparency and pragmatism in handing the case involving the MP for Awutu Senya East, Mavis Hawa Koomson.
Madam Hawa Koomson has confessed firing gunshots after a confrontation ensued at the Step to Christ registration centre in Kasoa which later led to three motorbikes being burnt.
The lawmaker who also doubles as the Minister responsible for Special Development Initiatives justified firing the gunshot saying she did that in self-defence.
But according to Prof. Aning, the act by the MP throws into abeyance all the work that has been done in the last 18 months with respect to Parliament’s gratification of the bill against vigilantism, the road map established by the National Peace Council and the signing of the code of conduct.
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To him, Mavis Hawa Koomson’s act has wider implications “in terms of the rule of violence in our politics and our willingness as a nation to reward violence as a political currency.”
He said the MP must receive the corresponding punishment for her actions if she is found to have acted in contradiction to the law to deter others.
Speaking on ATLFM’s Atlantic Wave on Tuesday, Prof. Aning indicated the police must make findings in their investigations into the matter bare in the public space to serve as caution to others who may contemplate treading a similar path.
“What is done to this person will serve as a deterrent to others else there could be escalating levels of violence towards December 7th”, Prof. Aning added.
He also bemoaned the political interference law enforcement and related institutions in the country are subjected to, which to him, prevents such institutions from fully living to their mandate of enforcing the law.
To this end, Prof. Kwesi Aning admonished concerned institutions to be firm during the December polls in order to ensure strict enforcement of the law.
Aba Aikins Appah/ATLFMNEWS
