President, Speaker console murdered MP’s family

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has instructed the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, to make sure that the killers of the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mfantseman, Mr Ekow Quansah Hayford, are brought to book.

Describing the murder of the MP as a big blow to him, the President, speaking in Twi, said he had made the IGP aware that if nothing good came out from the police on the incident, “there will be dire consequences”.

Mr Hayford, who was a first-time MP, was shot dead by some unknown gunmen on the Abeadze Dominase–Abeadze Duadzi–Mankessim road last Friday.

He was returning from a campaign trip with some constituency executives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) when the armed men stopped the vehicle on which they were travelling at a road block the robbers had mounted and shot him, killing him instantly.

During a visit to the bereaved family to commiserate with them in Mankessim yesterday, the President revealed that he had pencilled Mr Hayford in for a position in his next term as President.

Brilliant MP

Eulogising the slain MP, President Akufo-Addo said he acquitted himself in his first term in Parliament.

“There was no doubt that Mr Hayford was going to win the 2020 parliamentary election in the constituency, and he was one MP I was going to rely on to help advance the cause of this government.

“In all the happenings, however, God knows best,” the President said.

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Government support

President Akufo-Addo gave an assurance that the government would support the bereaved family to give the late MP a befitting burial.

He also said the children and the family would be taken care of.

• Professor Mike Oquaye (2nd right), Speaker of Parliament, exchanging pleasantries with the family of the late Mr Ekow Quansah Hayford, MP of  Mfantseman. Picture: Gabriel Ahiabor

Parliamentary delegation

The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, also led a delegation from Parliament to visit the late MP’s family yesterday.

Among the delegation were the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu; the Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu; the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, and Clerk to Parliament, Mr Cyril Oteng Nsiah.

They took turns to express their profound condolence and sympathy to the family, including the late MP’s wife, Mrs Ophelia Hayford, and her three children — a girl and two boys — and his mother, Madam Mena Matter.

Speaker

Expressing his condolences to the family on behalf of Parliament, Prof. Oquaye described Mr Hayford’s murder as a big loss, not only to his family but also Parliament and the country at large.

He said the late MP had a promising legislative career as he made contributions on the floor of the House, to the admiration of his colleague MPs.

The Speaker said the Minister of the Interior had confirmed that he would honour the invitation to brief Parliament on the steps the ministry was taking to provide security for MPs, particularly during this campaigning period, emphasising that "it is not everybody whose work is dangerous and campaigns in the night, but this is the nature of politicians”.

"The nature of their work can bring them envy and hatred and we need to consider their security seriously," he said.

Majority Leader

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu stressed the need for state protection for MPs, given the enormous task they had to perform on behalf of the citizenry.

He explained that due to the functions they played in society, MPs had become subjects of hatred, hence the need to provide them some protection.

"How many MPs would have to lose their lives before the public appreciates the need to protect them?" he asked, intimating that the late MP would be alive if he had police protection.

Minority Leader

Mr Iddrisu said the cruel murder of Mr Hayford marked a sad day for Parliament and the people of Ghana and was also a rude awakening for police reforms to ensure effective security for all.

He said it was the wish of the Speaker that he would have the House intact, "without him being disheartened with the loss of a member, even through dying naturally”.

“Unfortunately, that has not been the case, as he had had to go through the pain of losing yet another member in such gruesome manner. We are devastated with grief," he said, and recalled the death of a former MP for Abuakwa North, Mr J. B. Dankwa Adu, who was killed in 2016.

"The only way we can eulogise Mr Hayford is for justice to be seemed served, while we call on the police to improve their general security for all the citizenry, including MPs," he said.