First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Osei Owusu has defended President Akufo-Addo’s failure to address issues of election-related violence which led to the death of two people in the Techiman South Constituency of the Bono East Region.
According to Joe Osei Owusu, the two individuals, who lost their lives at a collation center in the constituency after they were hit by bullets of gunshots fired by security personnel, were criminals caught in their attempt to commit crimes.
Mr. Osei Owusu said there is no need for the president to commiserate with families of the victims since they were shot in the process of allegedly committing a crime.
For him, anybody killed in the act of committing a crime does not deserve sympathies. Making reference to armed robbers who are usually shot in gunfire exchanges with the police, the First Deputy Speaker chastised individuals who expressed disappointment in the president over his failure to speak on the deaths in the said constituency stating that criminals must not be pitied when they are killed.
“Should the president just talk if a criminal is shot? The crime doesn’t matter? I beg to differ. What happened, the president should stay out. Let the investigative people determine what happened but I think it is not fair to insist that because somebody died, even if he was in the process of committing a crime, it becomes an issue. No, I beg to differ.
Do we commiserate with families of armed robbers that we shoot? This our thinking that any victim should attract our sympathies, I don’t support that. If I’m wrongly killed, I deserve sympathy but if I am shot in the process of committing a crime, I deserve that,” he firmly stated.
He was reacting to concerns raised by the minority caucus in parliament over the president’s refusal to address the death of 8 persons as result of election-related violence in the December 7 polls during his address on the State of the Nation.
The minority contended that president Akufo-Addo’s refusal to speak on the shooting incidents in the Techiman South Constituencies and other Constituencies across the country that led to the death of 8 persons in the 2020 general elections smacks of insensitivity and his complicity in the violence incidents.
Electoral-related violence and high-handedness of some officers of the security agencies led to the death of 8 persons with several others injured during the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections in some constituencies across the country including Techiman South and Ablekuma Central.
The incidents have been condemned by a wider section of the public with many demanding for justice for the victims.
However, president Akufo-Addo is yet to speak on the matter even after delivering several public speeches in the aftermath of the elections.
