We're ready for battle of insults; Insult one, get two free - Veep warns NPP

The Vice President is promising to match the opposition New Patriotic Party boot for boot in what is likely to be a democratization of insults ahead of the 2016 elections in December.


Dr Papa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur told electorate at the Central Region, where he has been campaigning, that his party has in the past tolerated insults from the opposition party but warned that will no longer be countenanced.


Henceforth, he warned, his party is ready to give a double dose of the insults the NPP will throw at them.


The Vice President's comments come at a time the president has been admonishing all players in the political field to eschew the politics of insults.


At the recent campaign launch of the NDC's campaign in the Brong Ahafo Region, the president accused the NPP of engaging in the politics of insults and cautioned all parties to desist from it.


The president again reiterated that point when he invoked his powers of mercy under Article 72  to free three convicted persons who were jailed for criminal contempt.


The three, Salifu Maase, Alistair Nelson, and Godwin Ako-Gunn threatened to kill judges who sat on a case brought against the Electoral Commission. They also threatened to rape the Chief Justice.


Prior to their incarceration, the three had gained notoriety for the plain insults they  heaped on anybody they disagreed with during a political discussion on an Accra-based radio station Montie FM. Journalists, political opponents, religious leaders, business men and even footballers all fell victim to their attacks.


The three have vowed not to repeat the insults after they benefitted from the president's act of mercy.


But with the new promise by the Vice President Papa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, it appears supporters of the governing party have been given an all clear to return fire if and when they are insulted by a political opponent.


Commenting on the statement by the Vice President, the campaign coordinator of the NDC Kofi Adams told Joy News the Vice president meant that the government has done more work in four years than the NPP did in eight so if the NPP should come with lies, the NDC is ready and better placed to respond to them.


He said "if those lies continue we will respond," he reported the Vice President as saying.


He also added that the "NDC was so focused on the business of governance; now we are going into the campaign and the lies of Bawumia will be exposed."