The Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa Constituency has urged the public to disregard “twists” and “mischief” he claims some persons and media houses have put on responses he gave to questions by a group of journalists last Friday.
Kobina Tahir Hammond said: “I am educated, old and mature enough to know the history of Ghana and to understand the debilitating effect of ethnocentricity and bigotry in any community”.
KT Hammond is reported to have referred to residents of the Volta Region as non-Ghanaians and told the parliamentary press corps that the military presence in the Region could be as a result of stopping Togolese from trooping to Ghana for the impending voter registration exercise.
This has incensed many across the country, particularly Voltarians, who have sworn to resist any attempt on the part of government to intimidate them.
On Monday, June 29, the Volta Caucus in Parliament visited the areas where security presence has been heavy and its Chairman, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, threatened retaliation.
“The fire has been lit and we the Voltarians are ready,” the Ho West MP told journalists.
“We are not cowards and I want to repeat that we are not cowards,” he stressed.
But in a statement issued on Tuesday, June 30, KT Hammond said these “NDC actors” are only putting a twist on what he said on Friday.
“This is a deliberate, malicious, shameless twist of my responses with the sole purpose of causing me extraordinary political and social disaffection with Ghanaians from the Volta Region.
“It is clear beyond argument that in my responses in the interview, at no point in the 4 minutes’ segment did I suggest let alone state that Ghanaians from the Volta Region were not Ghanaians.”
He explained that he had even told the journalist he was unaware about the presence of the military in the Region and was only hazarding a guess.
“I am not the one to call fellow citizens from the Volta Region, non-Ghanaians.”
He said he has taken steps “to report the media houses associated with this mischief to the National Media Commission for redress”.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana