New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has waded into the controversy surrounding the attempted arrest and subsequent detention of Manhyia South MP, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, at the Accra High Court, describing it as a clear case of weaponization of state power.
Speaking at the NPP’s National Delegates Conference in Kumasi, Dr. Bawumia gave a detailed account of the incident, which was also condemned by the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) last week.
“Only last week, the Member of Parliament for Manhyia South, Hon. Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, was accosted at the Accra High Court, with no warrant produced, while he was there defending a vulnerable woman, a detained nurse from Techiman,” Dr. Bawumia revealed.
“When a warrant was later obtained, he did the honourable thing and walked into EOCO voluntarily. Yet a sitting MP who surrendered himself, and who poses no flight risk, was detained overnight. No one is above the law. But what purpose does detaining a man who came of his own free will serve, other than to humiliate and intimidate? That is not justice. It is the weaponisation of state power I spoke of,” he declared.
Dr. Bawumia used the incident to paint a broader picture of what he called flagrant abuse of rights and liberties under the current government.
“In Ghana today, flagrant abuse of rights and liberties of citizens has sadly become the order of the day under this government. The new era we are in, is the weaponisation of state power and the running of a different justice system for the NDC and another system for all other Ghanaians,” he said.
He alleged that Ghana now operates two justice systems: “one of haste for the government’s opponents and one of leisure for its friends.”
“Cases against persons linked to the governing party have been discontinued, some after the courts had already ordered the accused to open their defence. Meanwhile, cases involving opposition figures are picked out for hearing during the legal vacation while other cases wait. What is worse is the arrest, jailing and refusal of bail for critics of Government just because the NDC doesn’t like what they say,” he alleged.
He assured Ghanaians that when the NPP returns to power in 2029, “there will be one standard of justice for all. One law applied equally to every citizen, whatever their party.”
He also cautioned against politics of insults but reminded the government that “any infringement on the right to free speech pushes our democracy backwards.”