Shut Up Tony Aidoo

A retired Chief Inspector of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Alidu, has asked the National Democratic Congress (NDC) firebrand and former Deputy Minister of Defence, Dr. Tony Aidoo, to 'shut up' from making derogatory statements about the government and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He said Dr. Aidoo's effusions had the tendency to inflame political passions rather than promote peace and national integration.

“His statements have so far not made any positive impact in the political scene. As a former deputy minister of defence, his pronouncements are not seen as reconciling the nation but rather anytime he says anything he creates tension and panic,” Alidu said in an interview with The Chronicle yesterday.

Reacting to a statement attributed to Dr. Aidoo in last weekend's edition of Chronicle-on-Saturday that the government was bent on obliterating the ex-President, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings from Ghana's political history, he said such statements should be treated with the contempt that they deserved.

He continued, “It is unfortunate and unbelievable that he accused the NPP of trying to write off the name of the ex-President. It is rather Flt. Lt. Rawlings who is writing his name off by his un-statesmanlike utterances and conduct. If the ex-President is not treated with decorum as the only surviving former head of state, it is as a result of his inability to live as a statesman.”

He said if the ex-president could call on the Ghana Armed Forces to disobey the orders of the sitting president, who is their commander-in-chief and could call the leadership of the NPP murderers, thieves and liars, then it was he, and no one else, who was subjecting himself to public ridicule.

“It is wrong for Tony Aidoo to accuse the NPP leadership of trying to write off the ex-president's name from Ghanaian politics. He has written his name off by his utterances and statements.”

Alidu stressed that the era of dictatorial tendencies was over, recalling examples of Aidoo leading armed soldiers to invade the offices of a private newspaper, the Crusading Guide and the incidence of intimidation and harassment of journalists in the Rawlings' era.

Alidu was a former cadre of Rawlings' revolution. He joined the NPP after he retired from the police service. He recently lost his bid to stand for election to Parliament in the Ayawaso East constituency, have been defeated in the constituency primaries ahead of the December general election.