The Member of Parliament for Odododiodio Constituency has lashed out at the Concerned Citizens of Okyeman for staging a protest against former president Mahama and threatening to bar him and the NDC from campaigning in the Akyem state.
According to Lante Vandapuye, the group’s threats to bar the NDC and its flagbearer from campaigning in their land is dangerous for the peace and unity of the country as it could potentially lead to other tribal and ethnic groupings making same demands and threats.
The MP insisted that the ‘Akyem Sakawa’ post which John Dramani Mahama shared on social media has been taken out of context and accused the protesters of acting on the instructions of self-seeking politicians whose intent is to whip up ethnic sentiments for their political gains.
“People should stop this, either than that we are going to break this country. So if today we the Gas get up and say Akyems should remove their so-called Akyem traditional office from Adabaraka and carry it to Kyebi, will it be good? Why are they taking the Akyem Sakawa boys out of context? This useless incitement doesn’t help anyone in this country,” he sated in interview on Accra based Class FM.
While dismissing the calls for the former president to render an apology to the people of Akyem, he indicated that should the group carry out their threats of barring the party and it’s flagbearer from campaigning in the Akyem state, other tribes would follow suit and bar the NPP presidential candidate from undertaking campaign activities in their areas adding that “some of us are even going to insist that people will take a visa even to enter Accra.”
On Wednesday, September 9, 2020, a group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Okyeman took to the streets to protest against the John Dramani Mahama and the NDC for allegedly describing people of Akyem as ‘Sakawa’ people.
The group demanded an apology from the former president to the Okyman people threatening to prevent him and his party from campaigning in the Akyem state should he fail to apologize.
Former president Mahama shared a post authored by MP for Bolgatanga Central Constituency which described government officials involved in the Agyapa deal as ‘Akyem Mafia and Sakawa boys and grandpas’.
This did not go down well with the president who expressed his displeasure over the post accusing the former president of endorsing derogatory remarks against the tribe he belongs.
But former president Mahama insisted that the post is not ethnocentric remark against the Akyem people but only a description of some government officials who said are involved in a shady deal.
