Deputy Minority Leader Patricia Appiagyei has criticised the arrest and remand of the Bono Regional Chairman, Kwame Baffoe (Abronye), saying the process violates constitutional rights and threatens freedom of speech.
said the arrest violated Article 14 of Ghana’s Constitution, which protects personal freedom.
“We are looking at the constitutional provision that no person shall be deprived of his liberty except under clearly defined circumstances,” she said during her interview today, arguing that the case did not meet that threshold.
Appiagyei said Baffoe’s remarks were criticism, not a crime, and warned against treating dissent as a criminal offence.
“We are not encouraging insults, but every citizen has the right to criticise a system,” she said.
She also questioned the legal reason for Baffoe’s detention, claiming that by the end of business on Friday, no official documents had been presented to support the remand.
According to her, the argument that the accused might continue making public comments if granted bail was not strong enough to justify keeping him in custody.
“That is persecution, not prosecution,” she said.
The opposition has also expressed concern that some legal actions could be used to indirectly bring back criminal libel laws, which Ghana repealed more than 20 years ago.
