Pressure group Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has petitioned the US Department of State through the US Embassy in Accra to invoke sanctions against Assin Central Member of Parliament Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.
ASEPA wants Section 212(a)(3)(c) of the newly promulgated US Immigration and Nationality Act to be imposed on Mr Agyapong, who is also the Chairman of the Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament.
The petition is a result of recent public vitriol spewed by Mr Agyapong against Multimedia Group journalist Erastus Asare Donkor on Net 2 Television, which the lawmaker owns.
Multimedia Group has already sent copies of a petition it filed with the Ashanti Regional Command of the Ghana Police Service to New York-based Human Rights Watch and Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as well as the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Washington DC.
According to Mr Agyapong, the journalist was not fair in his reportage during the June 29 disturbances in Ejura in the Ashanti Region.
He urged viewers to beat up the journalist.
Mr Agyapong’s hate speech against the journalist on Friday, June 9, 2021, is said to be similar to one he hurled on Ahmed Hussein-Suale, leading to his shooting in 2019.
“We, therefore, request that the US Government through the Department of State activate the Khashoggi ban against Mr Kennedy Agyapong to restrain him from entering the United States where he has a couple of business interests or any United States territory.”
It will be recalled that the MP was banned to enter the US when then-Representative for Georgia’s 4th congressional district, Henry C. Johnson Jnr, petitioned Congress for the decision.
ASEPA also requested the ban to be extended to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for failing to find the killers of Ahmed Suale since 2019.
“We also want the United States Government to extend the Khashoggi ban to the Government of Ghana and all its officials until such a time when the Government resolves the murder of Ahmed Suale, arrest the culprits and prosecute them.
“Same sanctions should apply to the Parliament of Ghana and its officials if the Parliament fails to remove Mr Agyapong as the Chairman of the Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament.”
