The National Democratic Congress(NDC) has expressed concern over the ill-treatment being meted out to some of their members, especially in their strongholds by the government.
Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the National Chairman of the party, said the government had unleashed violence on the people residing in the areas that are considered to be bastions of the NDC.
He said this at the 2nd Annual NDC Lawyers Conference on Sunday, 28 August 2022.
Mr Ofosu Ampofo called on the lawyers in the party to offer their services to fight the injustices the NDC members were facing while citing the clashes between the people of Krobo and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) as a recent example of his claims.
“There have been human rights abuses targeted at some of our people in our strongholds. The recent ones are what happened in the Yilo and Manya Krobo areas.
“Military officers were deployed to the area to unleash violence and brutalities on these innocent people. The narration from the people is most unfortunate, to say the least. These are strongholds of the NDC, and I think we have to send teams to support,” he lamented.
Speaking at the same conference, the General Secretary of the NDC, Asiedu Nketia, accused judges and state institutions in the country of vilifying lawyers who are members of the NDC.
He said it was worrying that certain judges and state organizations have black-listed lawyers they consider ‘NDC lawyers’.
“Once you identify with NDC, you’re denied any opportunity to participate in state business. No state organization will feel comfortable assigning you legal business to do.
“We are aware of the intimidation you suffer in your profession with the leaders of your profession and the judiciary. I’m told that if you appear before certain judges, they prejudge your case because you’re not with a certain group,” he said.
Mr. Nketia said this trajectory does not bode well for the future of the nation’s democracy.
Meanwhile, Former President John Mahama said the judiciary’s image had been badly damaged, and a new Chief Justice was needed to fix it.
Addressing the same gathering, the 2020 presidential candidate for the NDC said the judiciary has currently become an object of ridicule for the citizenry.
“If people are not poking fun about politics and inducement being used to sway the hand of justice in the lower courts, then it is poking fun and making statements about the 7:0 of the unanimous FC. Verdicts which mostly involve cases of a political nature in our Supreme court, this is an unfortunate but serious development.”
“One of the scariest existential threats to any democracy is when citizens think their judiciary holds no value for them or no use to them, and this is the security threat that the National Security apparatus tried to draw the attention of the nation to recently but was poorly received by the President and his party,” he complained.
He added that there is an urgent need for the judiciary to remedy the situation and win the people’s trust.
“There is, therefore, the urgent need for the Ghanaian judiciary to work to win the trust and confidence of the citizenry and erase the widely-held perception of hostility and political bias in legal proceedings at the highest court of the land.”