On the groups of periodic links

It is shown that, if a link $\tilde{L}\subset S^3$ is $p^k$-periodic with $p$ prime and $k\ge 1$, and $L$ is the quotient link, then the groups of $\tilde{L}$ and $L$ can be related by counting homomorphisms to any finite group $\mathrm{\Gamma }$ whose order is not divisible by $p$.