Justin Frimpong Kodua
The largest opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said the nation under the current John Mahama presidency, is essentially witnessing the resurrection of the dreaded culture of silence and criminalisation of speech which was murdered in 2001 following the repeal of the Criminal and Seditious Libel Law by the erstwhile Kufuor administration, which signalled the nation’s bold declaration in decriminalising speech some 24 years ago.
The NPP has therefore expressed worry that the John Mahama government is today using the police to erode all the democratic gains and significant progress that the nation has achieved, particularly with free speech.
Justin Frimpong Kodua, General Secretary of the party, in a statement on Wednesday (September 10, 2025) condemning what he described as the growing culture of political harassment in the country and the recent arrest and detention the party’s Bono Regional Chairman, Kwame Baffoe alias Abronye DC, said the NPP, as a party of civility, does not countenance incendiary language, insulting and disrespecting others, or vulgarity in public discourse.
He indicated, however that, the position of the law in Ghana after the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law is that, if any Ghanaian (including the IGP) feels defamed or falsely accused, he or she has a remedy in law by way of civil libel, such as a defamation suit, and not criminal libel or criminal prosecution.
”The New Patriotic Party condemns in the strongest terms the arrest and detention of the Bono Regional Chairman of the Party, Kwame Baffoe, alias ‘Abronye’, by the police for allegedly insulting the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Christian Tetteh Yohunu. 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” the statement added.
The NPP General Secretary intimated the Mahama led administration has lost focus and accused the government of weaponizing the state security to fightdissenting voices and their opponents.
”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” he emphasized.
Lawyer Kodua added the police and national security are more interested in arresting and persecuting NPP social media activists such as ‘facebookers’ and ‘tiktokers’ who make “unpalatable or controversial statements” than fighting insecurity in the country, whereas members of the NDC who make similar or worse statements are spared, stressing the selectivity in the so-called application of the law is too manifest to go unnoticed.
”The law, they say, is the law, and we expect the IGP to know better. You don’t weaponise and abuse your office to settle personal scores with the very people you are supposed to protect. Ugly noises are certainly better than the culture of silence. Criminalising speech has no place in a democracy, and we call on COP Christian Tetteh Yohunu to respect the laws of Ghana and mend his ways” he cautioned.