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19.03.2009 Politics

Frances Jumps At Mills

By Daily Guide
Frances Jumps At Mills
19.03.2009 LISTEN

President Mills PRESIDENT JOHN Evans Atta Mills' teeth-baring speech on Tuesday has been greeted with an equally robust response from Ms. Frances Asiam, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Coalition of Democratic Forces (CDF), who told him “you cannot threaten the citizens of this country.”

Ghana, she said does, not belong to President Mills, who is only holding the country in trust for the people for the next four years.

Since he has been voted into power, Prof Mills owes it a duty to protect the people of this country for the four years assigned him by the Constitution, she said.

She however queried the President over what for her, are the shortcomings in his ability to discharge this critical function of his office.

The President's speech, she noted, was a threat to the citizens of the country, adding that nobody is holding himself as president.

“President Mills swore an oath of office to protect the people of this country, yet a number of atrocities have been perpetrated against members of the opposition and nothing has happened in terms of the arrests of suspects,” she said.

Continuing she said “I myself picked up the bills of some of these injured persons so I know what I am talking about.”

She said one of the President's spokespersons; Mr. Koku Anyidoho has said his boss was referring to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) by the innuendos in the speech he delivered.   

Ms Asiam said the crowd-pulling arrival of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo when he arrived from a foreign trip was one of the reasons Prof Mills was peeved.

As President of the Republic, Prof Mills, she said, is not the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to make utterances like “I am going to go after those who are unable to account for their stewardship”.

The aforementioned statement, she noted, was unnecessary if it was not intended to present the belligerent status the President intends to take henceforth.

“He is setting the tone of belligerency and we the people of Ghana are going to take him by his word till he apologises to us. We would make our voices heard more and more. We would draw the attention of the African Union (AU), Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) and other agencies about how governance has fallen to its lowest ebb since Prof Mills assumed the leadership of this country,” she said.

She did not take kindly to President Mills' recent wish that the whole of Ghana be turned into a prayer camp when he hosted a church delegation at the Castle.

“Some of us are good Christians and do not seek spiritual intervention beyond the borders of the country,” she said.

Turning the heat on the national security apparatus, she described the conduct of Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey (Rtd), the National Security Coordinator in respect of the treatment of the former President Kufuor, as disgraceful.

Frances bemoaned what she described as conflicting statements she said emanated from both Messrs Mahama Ayariga and Koku Anyidoho on the office accommodation saga for the former President and wondered where our political morals have gone.

By A.R. Gomda

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