Ghana Minister Denies Aim Is Dictatorship

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28397, 2 October 1957, Page 16

Ghana Minister Denies Aim Is Dictatorship

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

ACCRA, September 30.

The Ghana Minister of the Interior (Mr Krobo Edusei) said in an interview at Accra: “I have no ambition to be a dictator. The Premier is not a dictator, so why should I?” Referring to a report that in a recent speech he had said that members of the Opposition would be arrested before long, Mr Edusei said: “If we had wanted to arrest members of the Opposition we could have done so a long time ago. We are not going to allow the Opposition to overthrow us. Let them try.”

Mr Edusei went over, paragraph by paragraph, statements attributed to him at a Cape Coast political rally eight days ago and which were widely but belatedly reported. He was asked: “Did you say that a local deportation order was in process of preparation by

the Law Officer’s Department and would be submitted to Parliament for approval when it met on November 5?”

Mr Edusei: “I said it was proposed to introduce a bill to empower the Government to remove or detain any Ghana citizen who indulges in unconstitutional and subversive activities.” Detention of Opposition

Mr Edusei was asked: “Did you say that you would issue orders for the police to arrest and detain at certain places members of the Opposition and other difficult men who indulge in criticising the Government to the advantage of the Opposition?”

Mr Edusei answered: “I said it had come to my notice that members of the Opposition had employed certain people to attempt to assassinate Premier Nkrumah and members of his Cabinet and had offered £lOOO to would-be assassins.

“In the event of attempts on the lives of the Premier or members of his Government, all members of the Opposition in Parliament would be arrested and tried by the Ghana Courts.”

Mr Edusei was asked: “Did you say that you loved power and that the Premier had given you the most powerful of all the Ministries?”—“That is not true. I did not say that.” “Did you say that anyone who made a public speech to discredit the Government would be removed to a detention camp?”— “I never said any such thing. There are no detention camps in Ghana.”

“Did you say that you would introduce a bill under which all vehicles using the roads would have to clear out in favour of the Governor-General’s car or the Premier’s car or fire brigade or ambulance vehicles?”—“That’s correct. I said the terms of the bill would be decided by Parliament.”

“Did you say that if Mr Christopher Shawcross, the London lawyer who has been banned from Ghana had dared to cross the road to the hotel at the airport you would have asked the police to lock him up?”—“At that time Mr Shawcross had been declared a prohibited immigrant and therefore could not have come here. It would have been a matter for the police.” “Did you give a stern warning to police and civil servants?”— “I told the police to do their work . properly and conscientiously and warned them against accepting bribes. I told the civil servants that if they were unable to carry out the policies of the Government they were at liberty to resign.” Indian Criticism

At New Delhi today the independent “Times of India” described Mr Edusei as “a powerdrunk politician marshalling the familiar instruments of dictatorship.” A leading article, headed “Perils in Ghana,” said that Mr Edusei’s recent speech to the Convention People’s Party read alarmingly like a formal inauguration of totalitarianism in Ghana.