Former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has weighed into the arrest of Techiman-based nurse Salomey Bafor Awiti in connection with one Tik Toker Ghana Jollof.
The mother of three is said to have been picked up by intelligence officers in the middle of the night.
She has since been charged for abetting the publication of false news and remanded in custody for two weeks.
Commenting on the issue, Dr. Bawumia said it is most worrying.
“This is not the Ghana we want to build,” he stressed.
The 2028 flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) promised that when given the opportunity, he will not reduce the nation’s intelligence agencies “to chasing citizens for insulting the President or anyone else”.
“I have aways disavowed a politics of insults and will remind all in the political space of the need to be decorous.”
The former Vice President said the posture of the ruling government to gag free speech takes Ghana’s democracy backwards.
“Free speech, as unpalatable as it may be sometimes, is the foundation of our democracy,” he emphasised, adding that the government appears to be selective of the laws as regards free speech.
“Even more worrying, is the government’s continuous selective applications of our laws.
“Some citizens can insult and walk freely and others are jailed because the government doesn’t like the target of their insults.”
He called for the release of Salomey Bafor Awiti and others “who have been similarly charged and jailed”.