Alhaji Bature Iddrisu, managing editor of privately-owned Bilingual Free Press on February 19, 2011 filed a complaint at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service against Kennedy Agyapong, an opposition Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North Constituency of the Central Region, for threatening him with death.
Agyapong was reported by a pro-government daily newspaper, The Enquirer, to have saidthat he would “kill” Alhaji Bature for consistently linking him and his family to illicit drug trafficking from one radio station to another.
“I will kill you…meku wo (I will kill you)… I will kill you,” the newspaper quoted the MP as saying on an Accra-based local language radio programme on Asempa FM on February 18.
When Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) contacted Alhaji Bature, he confirmed accusing the MP of making money through the illicit trade. He said his comments were in reaction to the MP, who had slandered the memory of his dead father (a rich contractor), by describing him as a poor security man. He said the MP also accused him (Bature) of being a shepherd.
Alhaji Iddrisu stated he said during a programme on Asempa FM that the minority MPs including Agyapong, who were distracting President John Atta Mills during his sessional address to Parliament on February 17 became “dumb” immediately the President announced the reopening of a probe into a missing 76 parcel of substance suspected to be narcotic drug in 2006.
The Enquirer newspaper said in its February 21 publication that the police will soon write to the Speaker of Parliament, Joyce Bamford-Addo, to release Agyapong for questioning.
Meanwhile, the MP had denied dealing in narcotic drug trade. He told an Accra-based Joy FM that hehad been a victim of daily insults and allegations from Alhaji Bature. When asked why he would not take legal action against Alhaji Bature for calling him a drug dealer, the MP said: “What action; the action is what I took. I have to respond accordingly because the system is not being fair to anybody…”
