Opposition NDC drags Akufo-Addo to The Commonwealth

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has petitioned The Commonwealth Secretariat over a catalogue of human rights breaches, criminal persecutions and harassment of its members by President Nana Akufo Addo and his government.

General Secretary of the party Johnson Asiedu Nketia told a press conference in Accra that the petition is intended to draw the attention of the international body to “various acts of human right violations, criminal persecutions and harassment of members and supporters of by the Government of Ghana headed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo”.

The party is asking the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth to advise and encourage the Government of Ghana to desist from these acts that threaten Ghana’s peace and security.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia noted that since coming into office in January 2017, President Akufo-Addo’s agenda of physical violence against political opponents, which he preached and championed prior to the 2016 general elections, has evolved into structural, institutional, and systemic forms of violence.

He mentioned ongoing court cases against former CEO of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni & two others; National Chairman of the NDC Samuel Ofosu Ampofo & a Deputy National Communications Officer Anthony Kwaku Boahen; and another against a former Deputy Minister for Finance Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson & two others; as examples of harassment and criminal persecutions of NDC members.

The NDC Scribe also mentioned the violence unleashed on voters by state-sponsored para-security during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election, and the lack of representation in Parliament for the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi, as examples of human rights violations committed by the Akufo-Addo administration.

“These actions of the Government of Ghana create conditions that threaten Ghana’s political stability and further erode the democratic values. President Akufo-Addo has become a democratic despot who brooks no opposition” Mr. Asiedu Nketia added.

The NDC says these acts are against the norms and practices of members of the Commonwealth of Nations and therefore called on the body to investigate and monitor the human rights situation in Ghana and the criminal persecution of members of the NDC.

The party has also called on government to put a stop to the persecution, harassment, threats and killings of supporters and members of the NDC.

Besides political opponents, the ruling New Patriotic Party government has imprisoned and detained several journalists and activists. Accra FM’s Kwabena Bobbie Ansah was recently detained for publishing what the police say was false news, while Power FM’s Oheneba Boamah Bennie was jailed for two weeks for contempt of court.

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