British High Commissioner to Ghana Harriet Thompson has clarified the motive behind her tweet on the arrest of social media activist Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor on Tuesday, May 17.
She said her tweet was harmless and would not have gotten people onto the streets as suggested in a letter by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare.
Dr Akuffo Dampare had questioned the UK High Commissioner over the tweet, noting that it is against the Vienna Convention of 1961.
“What is more, we consider your tweet a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host countries.
“Your Excellency, the fact that you use the phrase ‘arrested again’, we believe, must mean you were making reference to previous occasions Mr Barker-Vormawor was arrested for threatening the security of the state and recently for motor traffic offences.”
The IGP took cognisance of precedents in Britain where some religious leaders were picked up for pronouncements considered threatening to the state.
“This, we believe, your country did in its quest to safeguard the security of the state and ensure the sustenance of the peace the inhabitants enjoy.”
But in an interview on GHOne Television on Tuesday, May 31, Harriet Thompson said her intention was not to spark any trouble.
“My experience[s] of Ghana, are peace-loving nation where people do have the right to express themselves, where they do have the right to come and protest things that matter to them.
“A tweet like that is not going to be the thing that will get people onto the streets, in my view. If I had thought that there was the remotest chance of that, I wouldn’t be tweeting things like. That is clearly not my intention.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana