By Emmanuel Nii Sackey
The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Frimpong Kodua, has vehemently denounced the arrest of Abubakar Yakubu, popularly known as Baba Amando, characterizing it as a blatant attempt to suppress opposition voices. He queried the grounds for the arrest, asserting that the social media post purportedly responsible for the action contained nothing unlawful.
“The manner in which arrests are being carried out smacks of authoritarianism. Some individuals are not even aware of the reasons behind their arrests. We purportedly operate in a democratic setup, and it is appalling that state institutions are being utilized to intimidate NPP members, which is antithetical to our values,” he stated.
According to him, certain judges have been coerced into remanding suspects, and those judges have been assigned to handle such cases.
“Mahama and the NDC need to understand that we are not living under military rule,” he emphasized.
The National Organizer of the Party, Henry Nana Boakye, popularly known as Nana B, also accused President John Dramani Mahama of employing state institutions to harass opposition figures. These comments follow the arrest of the Sunyani East Constituency Communications Officer, Abubakar Yakubu, by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service on Monday, April 13, over allegations of publishing false news involving President Mahama and some government officials.
In a related development, the Bono Regional Chairman of the NPP, Kwame Baffoe Abronye, was also arrested while attempting to secure bail for Yakubu. According to the police, Abronye’s arrest is connected to allegations of publishing false news and threatening a High Court judge.
Yakubu, popularly known as Baba Amando, was remanded for two weeks by an Accra Circuit Court on Tuesday.