The New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Dormaa East and member of the Foreign Affairs committee in Parliament, who was also a former employee of British High Commission,Paul Apraku Twum Barimah, Has advised the British High Commissioner to Ghana , Harriet Thompson , and the Inspector General of Police, George Akkufo Dampare to use diplomacy to discuss and resolve the issues relating to the arrest of Oliver Baker Vormawor.
According to Paul Twum Barimah, throwing jabs in the media and replying same by the two high profile personalities doesn’t help in nation and peace building. Besides that, he said the laws of the state must be allowed to work without any inteference .
The member of parliament made this known in an interview with the media where he said the British high commissioner has all the avenues avalable to request for the necessary information on the issue to be well informed.
The MPs statement comes hours after the Ghana Police Service responded to the British High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson, over her comments in relation to the arrest of the convener of the FixTheCountry Movement.
Madam Harriet Thompson, in a Tweet on Tuesday, May 17, said she looks forward to seeing how the arrest of the convener of the FixTheCountry Movement would turn out.
“Oliver Barker Vormawor, the convener of #FixTheCountry Movement, arrested again, I understand, for a motoring offense on his way to court. I’ll be interested to see where this goes…,” the tweet said.
However, the Police in a letter signed by the IGP, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare to Madam Harriet Thompson said her tweet was from either a “biased or uninformed position.”
Even though it said it would ordinarily not respond to such comments, it is doing so from a previous painful experience.
Letter from the Ghana Police Service
“Ordinarily, the Ghana Police Service would not have responded to comments such as yours, obviously made from either a biased or uninformed position.”
Parts of the letter.
“However, we have learnt from a previous painful experience that it has not been helpful to ignore such misguided, unwarranted, and biased comments intended to tarnish the reputation of the Ghana Police Service and that of our country.”
The letter also stated that the British High Commissioner’s tweet violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Part of the letter from the Police
“What is more, we consider your tweet as a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country”
Ending part of the letter
Background
The FixTheCountry convener was arrested at the East Legon tunnel in Accra as part of an operation by the police to control traffic.
The exercise also led to the arrest of drivers of other prominent personalities.
He was subsequently taken to the East Legon Police cells after he was arraigned before the Madina District Court.
He was charged with careless and inconsiderate driving and granted bail to the tune of ¢30,000 bail with two sureties.
However, upon his release, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, said he was stripped down and kept for eight hours in Police cells.
According to him, this treatment was mainly for a road traffic offence.
“Just released. Arrested at 7:30 am. Stripped down and kept in police cells for eight hours for a “road traffic offence”, apparently. 30,000 cedis bail and 2 sureties [sic].”
“I am not above the law,” he claimed in a Facebook post.