The Youth Wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) wants President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to “walk his talk” by ordering the release of Appiah Stadium.
The Kumasi-based NDC serial caller was arrested on Tuesday for “criticizing the President”.
According to the NDC Youth Wing, Appiah Stadium was just being a citizen and not a spectator as advocated by the president in his inaugural speech to Ghanaians.
A statement signed by the National Youth Organiser, Sidii Abubakar Musah, said the arrest of Appiah Stadium defies all what President Akufo-Addo claims he stands for.
“We will be left with no other choice but to positively defy the authorities to secure the release of our comrade if the President fail to act immediately on our demand for his release.”
Find the unedited statement below:
NDC YOUTH CONDEMNS THE ARREST OF APPIAH STADIUM
The NDC Youth wing has learnt with utter shock, the arrest and detention of one of our own, APPIAH STADIUM by the Ghana police for allegedly speaking his mind against his excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo.
We are shocked not only because the police are breaking the law with impunity, but we are also shocked because this unlawful arrest is on the orders of a President who has always claimed to be an apostle of free speech.
President Nana Akuffo Addo has also claimed in the past that he contributed emensely to the breaking of the culture of silence in Ghana, and yet, this is an obvious re-introduction of the culture of silence which the President claim to have helped banish from our body politics in Ghana.
The President Nana Akuffo Addo must realise that freedom of speech is totally meaningless without freedom after speech. And the President and his NPP party cannot decide only to respect free speech when in opposition and turn around to conveniently bury it whiles in power.
We consider the unlawful arrest and detention of Appiah Stadium after his criticism of the President as an abuse of his fundamental right to free speech as a citizen of Ghana.
We demand that the President who asked Ghanaians at his inauguration this year to be active citizens and not spectators, walk his talk by immediately ordering the release of Appiah Stadium from unlawful police detention when his only ‘crime’ is trying to be an active citizen.
We the NDC Youth are aware of several NPP members who insulted President Rawlings, President Mahama and the late President Mills during the NDC regimes but were never arrested or detained because the NDC understand the true meaning and practice of free speech.
The arrest and detention of Appiah Stadium totally defies all that the President, his excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo claim to stand for.
We will be left with no other choice but to positively defy the authorities to secure the release of our comrade if the President fail to act immediately on our demand for his release.
Sign.
Sidii Abubakar Musah
(NDC National Youth Organiser)
Source: 3news.com|Ghana