The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has condemned the arrest and detention of its Bono Regional Chairman, Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye, describing the move as politically motivated and a threat to the country’s democratic space.
In a statement signed and issued on Wednesday, September 10 by the Party’s General Secretary, Justin Kodua Frimpong, the NPP said Abronye’s arrest for allegedly insulting the Inspector-General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohunu, was part of a growing pattern of intimidation and harassment of opposition members by the John Mahama administration.
Read also: Abronye arrested for offensive conduct – Police
“The Party notes rather disturbingly that the persecution of Chairman Abronye is the latest instalment of the growing pattern of politically motivated intimidation and harassment of its members for being critical of the NDC government.”
According to the NPP, state security agencies are being weaponised to silence dissenting voices rather than focusing on addressing the country’s mounting security challenges. The Party cited violent clashes in Bawku, Nkwanta, and Gbeniyiri in the Savannah Region, which have claimed dozens of lives and displaced thousands, arguing that the government’s priorities were misplaced.
“It is rather unfortunate that eight (8) months into the administration of H.E. John Dramani
Mahama, the government appears to have completely lost focus. The government has used the
past eight months to weaponise the state security, not in the fight against galamsey, and certainly not to protect the citizenry and deescalate the growing insecurity situation in many parts of the country, particularly in Bawku, Nkwanta, and Gbeniyiri in the Savanna Region, where recent communal clashes have claimed over 32 lives and displaced more than 50,000 Ghanaians, some of whom have become refugees in neighbouring countries.”
In the statement, NPP accused the government of resurrecting a “culture of silence” through the criminalisation of speech, contrary to democratic gains made after the repeal of the Criminal and Seditious Libel Law in 2001.
While stressing that it does not endorse abusive or vulgar language, the NPP maintained that remedies for defamation should lie in civil litigation and not criminal prosecution.
The opposition party also alleged that the government was extending this trend of weaponisation to the judiciary, referencing the recent removal of the Chief Justice, which it described as unlawful.
It warned that such developments undermined the rule of law, eroded press freedom, and diminished Ghana’s democratic standing on the global stage.
Calling on President Mahama to halt what it described as state-sponsored intimidation, the NPP vowed not to remain passive.
Below is the full statement;
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