Member of Parliament, Kennedy Agyapong, has clarified his 2013 “kill Ewes” comment which sparked outrage and also resulted in treason charges leveled against him.
Seeking to provide context and clarify his statement during a public event in Keta on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, he said the comment was in defence of New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters in the Volta Region who were allegedly being molested by some supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and not to incite hate against Ewes as purported. Mr Agyapong vehemently denied any intention to promote hatred towards any ethnic group.
Recall that in 2012, Mr Kennedy allegedly declared war on all Ewes living in the Ashanti region, inciting NPP activists in the region to attack Ewes with machetes and cutlasses.
He is quoted to have said that: “Today I declare war on this country, Gbevlo-Lartey and his people, IGP should know this. Voltarians in the Ashanti Region will not be spared. If anyone touches you, butcher him with a cutlass…” However, the MP has indicated that he meant no harm with this statement.
Narrating events that led to the comments, he said it all started when one Mr Soloman Donkor, who was then an employee of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) approached him with a complaint.
“I was charged with treason with treason sometime ago, I think that was in 2013. The story was that a gentleman named Solomon Donkor from Biakoye came to my House in Tema Community 12 and told me that a Chief in Biakoye has asked miners who are below 18 years to go and register to vote and the NPP in Biakoye resisted what the Chief said.”
As a result of the action taken by the NPP supporters, they were being attacked in the community, according to the report from Mr Donkor. He (Donkor) also indicated that he had approached various radio stations in the area to seek a platform to speak on the matter and also draw attention of authorities to what was going on in the area. However, “none of the radio allowed him to speak on air about what was going on in Biakoye.”
Consequently, Mr Donkor sought the help of Mr Agyapong who owned some radio and TV stations to help him address the matter. Initially, Mr Agyapong said he offered to let Mr Donkor speak on the matter himself but he was unable to since he was still a public servant and feared he was going to be dismissed from COCOBOD if he spoke on the matter himself.
“Mr Donkor then asked me to speak on behalf of the people of Biakoye. So I decided to speak on behalf of the NPP supporters. Actually, he dictated everything I said except one thing: “NDC, if you think Volta region is your stronghold and you’re beating people, if you think Greater Accra region is your stronghold and you’re beating people, then Eastern Region and Ashanti region is our stronghold. We will beat the NDC in our stronghold,” he recalled.
“I made this statement around 9:30 am in the morning. By 5pm, Police officers had surrounded my radio station. So the next day I went to the police station and it was all over the news that Ken Agyapong said ‘go and kill Ewes.’ Later, I was charged with treason and which meant that if I was found guilty, I would be killed,” he said.
“I was charged with treason for defending NPP voltarians,” he added.
After his arrest, he was charged with treason but was later acquitted and discharged of all treason charges.