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An international relations expert, Farouk Al- Wahab, has said it was wrong for the UK High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson, to use Twitter to convey her concerns regarding the arrest of #fixthecountry convener, Oliver Barker-Vormawor.
In an interview Angel FM Wednesday, June 1, 2022, Mr Al-Wahab argued that there are avenues available for persons especially diplomats, through which they can channel their concerns about happenings within their host countries.
“If you have a concern about the operations, works of the police, whether good, bad, when you are a carrier diplomat or diplomat of a country–where the country is hosting you–there is private mail, private addresses…,” Mr Al-Wahab mentioned in the interview with Nana Yaa Brefo.
He also mentioned that she could have drawn the attention of the head of the diplomatic corps and the foreign Ministry to such occurrences.
According to him, going the stated ways to express one’s issues for remedial measures to be taken was more appropriate but resorting to the use of social media was “pure blackmailing” of the country.
He explained that as an ambassador, the individual represents his or her country in the host nation. As such, when the diplomat speaks about any ill-treatment against a citizen, the person “advertises, publishes or portrays” the country in a bad light.
Background
On Tuesday, May 31, 2022, the Ghana Police Service published on its social media page a response to a comment made by Madam Harriet Thompson in which the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr George Akuffo Dampare asked her to “di wo fie asem” to wit, “mind your own business”.
Madam Harriet Thompson had posted on Twitter, on May 17, “Oliver Barker Vormawor, the convener of #FixTheCountry Movement, arrested again, I understand, for a motoring offense on his way to court. I’ll be interested to see where this goes…,”
This the IGP deemed an attempt to undermine the law enforcement procedures of the police service, hence the need to respond to same by asking her to restrain herself from interfering in the matters of the security agencies.
