Ladies and gentlemen of the press, good morning.I am here today because something deeply troubling is happening in our country. What has been done to Mr Kwame Baffoe, Abronye DC, Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, is a profound constitutional wrong. It must be condemned. Without equivocation. Without apology. And without delay. The arrest, prosecution and remand of a citizen for words spoken in the public square is not justice. It is persecution.

Now, let me be honest about where I personally stand. I do not condone irresponsible speech. I never have. I never will. Public discourse carries responsibility. I believe that deeply. Where speech genuinely damages a person’s reputation, Ghanaian law already provides a remedy. A civil remedy. Measured, proportionate and designed precisely for that purpose.

But what Ghanaian law does not provide, and what it was never designed to provide, is the conversion of a civil grievance, assuming without admitting that one even exists in this case, into a criminal prosecution. It does not authorise the marching of a man before a Circuit Court, the stripping of his liberty, and his consignment to a state intelligence facility.

That is not justice. That is the iron fist of state power wearing a legal glove.

THE CHARGES: A PROSECUTION BUILT ON SAND

[Measured tone. State the facts clearly.]On 13th May 2026, Mr. Abronye DC was arraigned before Circuit Court 9 here in Accra. He faces two charges. First, offensive conduct conducive to breach of the peace under Section 207(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960. Second, publication of false news under Section 208(1) of the same statute.

And what is the foundation of these charges?

A social media video. In which Mr. Abronye criticised a Circuit Court Judge. He questioned that Judge’s impartiality. He questioned his conduct in the discharge of his public judicial function. That is the sum total of his alleged crime. He spoke. He criticised a public officer.

Since when did criticising a judge become a criminal offence in Ghana? Section 207(1) requires conduct that is likely to occasion a breach of the peace. Political criticism of a public official, however sharp, does not meet that threshold. It is protected expression under Article 21(1)(a) of the 1992 Constitution. And the false news charge? Section 208(1) demands proof that Mr. Abronye knew his statement to be false. A man expressing a political opinion about judicial conduct is not publishing false news. Not by any honest reading of that provision.

This prosecution is built on sand. And we will watch it fall.

THE BAIL DENIAL: A JUDGE WHO FORGOT HIS OATH

Let me turn to what happened in that courtroom. It demands its own separate and pointed rebuke. Counsel for Mr. Abronye presented a bail application. The grounds were solid. The charges are misdemeanours. The accused has a fixed place of abode. He is a prominent public figure with reliable sureties. His health and family responsibilities were placed before the court.

The prosecution opposed bail on one ground only. One ground. That Mr. Abronye, if released, was likely to commit similar offences. In other words, the state asked a court to imprison a man before any finding of guilt, because he might speak again. And the court agreed. A citizen imprisoned not for what he did, but for what he might say. That is not law. That is censorship from the bench.

That reasoning is a constitutional disgrace. It is irreconcilable with Articles 14 and 19 of the 1992 Constitution, which guarantee personal liberty and the presumption of innocence. A judge who denies bail because an accused may continue to express political opinions has not administered justice.

I say what I am about to say as a practising lawyer. As someone who has spent his professional life in courtrooms, who has profound respect for our judiciary and deep admiration for those who carry the weight of dispensing justice. I say it not in anger, but in fidelity to the Constitution I have sworn to uphold, and with all the candour, humility and respect I can command.

When a court denies bail not to serve justice, but to serve silence, it has administered political censorship from the bench. And that, with the greatest of respect, is a betrayal of every principle that gives judicial office its authority, its dignity and its legitimacy.

THE BNI REMAND AND A MISSING COURT ORDER

Every remaining doubt about the political character of this prosecution is removed by the decision to remand Mr. Abronye into BNI custody.

The BNI is Ghana’s state intelligence and security service. It is not a remand prison. It exists to address genuine threats to national security.

Mr. Abronye DC posted a critical video about a judge. That is not a national security matter. It never was.This has nothing to do with criminal justice and everything to do with political intimidation. But there is something even more alarming. I want every Ghanaian to hear this clearly. It has now been four days since the court pronounced the remand order. Four days.

As I understand it, on the basis of information available to me at the time of this statement, no signed and certified remand order has been produced by the court registry. Counsel for Mr. Abronye has attended the registry on multiple occasions. Each time, they were told the order was not yet ready.

So I ask a very simple question. On what legal basis did the Ghana Police Service take Mr. Abronye into custody and convey him to the BNI?On what legal basis did the BNI accept him and hold him?A remand order is not a verbal instruction. It is a formal judicial instrument. It is the written legal authority upon which the deprivation of a citizen’s liberty must rest.Was a Ghanaian citizen delivered into intelligence custody on nothing more than a word of mouth? If so, that detention has no documented lawful foundation whatsoever.T

his engages directly the protections of Article 14 of the 1992 Constitution, which requires that no person shall be deprived of his personal liberty except as permitted by law, and that every arrested person shall be informed immediately, in a language he understands, of the reasons for his arrest.

This office puts the Ghana Police Service, the Bureau of National Investigations and Circuit Court 9 on clear and unambiguous notice.

The production of a signed and certified remand order is not a technicality. It is a constitutional imperative. Its absence, if confirmed, would render this detention not merely improper, but unlawful.

What we are witnessing is either a crass dereliction of duty, or a raw and deliberate exercise of power designed to show a political opponent where power lies, with due process an afterthought.Neither explanation is acceptable in a constitutional democracy. Both demand accountability.

THE GHOST OF CRIMINAL LIBEL: BURIED BY KUFUOR, RESURRECTED BY MAHAMA

There is a deeper dimension to what this government is doing. And it must be named plainly. On 27th July 2001, Ghana’s Parliament unanimously passed the Criminal Code (Repeal of Criminal Libel and Seditious Laws) (Amendment) Act, 2001, Act 602.

President John Agyekum Kufuor gave his assent on 2nd August 2001, striking from our statute books one of the most notorious instruments of state censorship this country had ever known. That repeal was a defining moment in Ghana’s democratic maturation. A declaration that in a free society, the state has no business imprisoning citizens for what they say. The bill was presented to Parliament by the then Attorney General, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The world applauded. Ghana was held up as a model for Africa.

But before we go further, let us be precise about one important historical fact. The criminal libel law was not created by the PNDC or the NDC. It is a colonial inheritance, drafted in 1893 by British colonial administrators and embedded in our statute books to suppress dissent against imperial rule. Kwame Nkrumah inherited it at independence. It was codified in our Criminal Offences Act, 1960. The law predated the Rawlings era by decades.

But what history will never forgive the PNDC and the NDC for is this: they weaponised that colonial relic most ferociously, most systematically, and with the greatest cruelty against the citizens of a free Ghana.Under the PNDC military regime of Jerry John Rawlings, journalists, academics, lawyers, trade unionists and ordinary citizens were arrested, detained without trial and tortured for daring to speak. The culture of silence was not a metaphor. It was a lived reality, enforced by brute state power.

In 1982, Mr. Tommy Thompson, publisher of the Free Press, and Mr. Mike Adjei, a senior writer, were among those imprisoned without trial for editorials critical of the PNDC. Mr. John Kugblenu, the editor, was separately arrested in 1983 and detained without charge before being transferred to Nsawam Prison. He died in 1984, shortly after his release, his health destroyed by the conditions of his detention. He was never charged. He was never tried. He simply died for daring to write. Tommy Thompson himself continued to face harassment and repeated prosecutions and died in 1998, his death a direct consequence of the brutalities he endured in his long fight for press freedom. Two men. Two deaths. The blood of both is on the hands of that regime.

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Junior was arrested and tortured under the PNDC. He has spoken publicly about being made to crawl the full length of a military parade square on his knees until they bled. About being caned on his waist. About 25 days at the Field Engineers facility that left him physically incapacitated. About losing control of his bodily functions for days on end. All for speaking the truth to power.

Kwesi Pratt Junior was jailed and tortured during that same period. So was Akoto Ampaw. And many others whose names history has not fully preserved.

Then came the NDC in constitutional form. And even under the democratic dispensation, the party found uses for the criminal libel law it had inherited. On 23rd July 1998, two of Ghana’s most respected newspaper editors, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Junior of The Guide and Alhaji Haruna Atta of The Weekend Statesman, were convicted by the Court of Appeal and sentenced to one month in prison. Their crime? Publishing a story about the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings. They were dispatched to separate prisons, Akuse, Winneba and Anomabo, in a deliberate attempt to break their spirits and prevent visits from supporters. Images of Kweku Baako and Haruna Atta in handcuffs, being marched to prison, are etched in the collective memory of every Ghanaian who loves freedom.

In 1996, editors Nana Kofi Coomson of the Ghanaian Chronicle, Ebenezer Quarcoo and Tommy Thompson of the Free Press were arrested and charged with publishing false news with intent to injure the reputation of the state. Those exact words. Publishing false news. The same statutory weapon this government is now deploying against Abronye DC.And when the call came to repeal the criminal libel law, the then NDC Chairman, Obed Yao Asamoah, who had also served as Attorney General under the Rawlings government, declared publicly that the law could be repealed over his dead body. Over his dead body. That is the NDC’s historic relationship with free speech. That is the tradition President Mahama now chooses to continue.

The NPP abolished the law that the NDC swore to keep. And now the NDC is quietly rebuilding what the NPP tore down.

Now the Mahama administration, unable to openly reverse that landmark reform without international condemnation, has chosen a more cunning path.

Rather than restore criminal libel by name, it is reconstructing the criminal libel regime in practice. Hiding behind Sections 207 and 208 of Act 29 to achieve through the back door what it cannot defend through the front.The charges against Abronye DC, Baba Amando, David Essandoh, and others are, in substance and in effect, criminal libel prosecutions. The only difference is the label on the charge sheet.

The intent is the same. The mechanism is the same. The consequence is the same. Arrest. Remand. Imprisonment. Silence.

President Kufuor abolished criminal libel to set Ghana free. President Mahama is rebuilding it, brick by brick, to cage the opposition.

That project ends here.

WHEN CIVIL REMEDIES EXIST, CRIMINAL PROSECUTION IS A POLITICAL CHOICE

I made this point earlier in these proceedings, and I return to it now, because it deserves to be stated plainly and in its full legal force. Ghanaian law already provides a civil remedy for any person who genuinely believes they have been defamed. It has always been there. It exists today. The aggrieved party may approach the civil courts. They may sue. They may place their case before a judge. They may walk away with their reputation vindicated and with damages in hand.

Not a single arrest is required for any of that. Not a single bail application. Not a single remand into BNI custody. The civil law achieves the stated objective, the vindication of reputation, without any of those consequences.This government knows that. Its lawyers know that. The prosecuting officers know that.

And yet, case after case, the criminal route is chosen over the civil one.That choice is not a legal necessity. It is a deliberate political decision. And the purpose it serves is not the vindication of any reputation. It is the suppression of voices.When you want to protect your name, you go to the civil courts. When you want to punish and silence an opponent, you send the police.This government has made its choice, not once, not twice, but repeatedly and with purpose. The Ghanaian people can see it for exactly what it is.

A PATTERN, NOT AN INCIDENT

Ladies and gentlemen, let no one tell you this is an isolated case. The arrests of NPP members for things they have said or posted in public are too numerous to catalogue here. We have documented case after case since this administration assumed office on 7th January 2025. The list grows longer by the week.Let me mention just a few.

Mr. David Essandoh, NPP Agona West Constituency Organiser. Arrested by a team of approximately ten armed CID and BNI officials. His crime? Posting an image of President Mahama with the caption ‘Dumsor is back.’ Ten armed officers, for a Facebook post about electricity outages afflicting millions of Ghanaians.Mr. Abubakar Yakubu, NPP Sunyani East Communications Officer, popularly known as Baba Amando. Arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court. Remanded. Charged with offensive conduct, false publication and circulation of statements likely to incite fear and panic.

Mr. Alfred Ababio Kumi, known as Adenta Kumi, was arrested by operatives of the National Investigations Bureau in a dramatic dawn raid on his home. His wife suffered a miscarriage as a direct consequence of that raid. His crime? Submitting a petition to the President concerning the conduct of committee members sitting on the Chief Justice removal proceedings, and making comments in media interviews and on social media about the same matter. He was formally charged with publication of false news under the same statutory provision being used against Abronye DC today.

And there is the case of Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, Member of Parliament for Assin South and the Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee of this Parliament. This is a sitting Member of Parliament. A duly elected representative of the people. NIB operatives attempted a raid on his residence after he raised concerns about two aircraft that visited Ghana and alleged possible links to drug dealing and money laundering. His colleagues in the Minority caucus had to physically resist the attempted arrest. Dr. Bawumia himself had to visit him to reassure him. That a Member of Parliament should require reassurance that he remains free after raising matters of national security concern in the discharge of his public duty is a statement of the most alarming kind about where this country is heading.

And now Abronye DC. Remanded into BNI custody for criticising a judge.

These are not isolated incidents. They are selected examples from a deeply troubling and growing list.This is what Dr. Bawumia has rightly described as an unholy collaboration between the Executive, state investigative agencies, and some elements within the judiciary aimed at silencing the NPP. He is right. The pattern is undeniable.

This is state-sponsored political persecution. And it must stop.

A WORD TO THE JUDICIARY: GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY, NOT INSTRUMENT OF POWER

I now address the judiciary of this Republic directly. And I do so with the gravity this moment demands.The 1992 Constitution vests judicial power in the judiciary and charges it with a solemn mandate: to be the independent guardian of the rights and liberties of the Ghanaian people.Article 125(3) declares that the judicial power of Ghana shall be vested in the Judiciary. Article 127 fortifies that with the guarantee of independence. These are not ceremonial provisions. They are the constitutional foundation upon which every citizen’s liberty ultimately rests.

It is with the deepest concern that I observe how the courts have conducted themselves in this matter.A bail application grounded on orthodox legal principles was dismissed on a basis that no serious reading of

Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution can sustain.A citizen has been remanded into the custody of an intelligence service on misdemeanour charges.And that remand appears to have been executed without a signed and certified court order.At every turn, the scales have tilted not toward the protection of liberty, but toward its curtailment.A court that allows itself to become a tool for silencing political opponents has ceased to be a guardian of liberty. It has become a participant in its destruction.

I am aware of the climate in which our judiciary is operating. I am aware that this is a government that has shown it is capable of defiling our Constitution to haul a sitting Chief Justice out of office. I am aware that some members of our judiciary may be afraid. They look at what was done to the Chief Justice and ask themselves whether standing up for the Constitution is worth the personal cost. I understand that fear. But I will not pretend it is acceptable.

A judge who surrenders to fear and becomes a timorous soul, too intimidated to defend the Constitution and the rights it protects, is no longer a judge. He has become an instrument of the powerful. The people of Ghana look to the courts as the last line of defence when the Executive overreaches. That trust is earned by the fearless and impartial application of constitutional principle, especially when the person before the court is politically inconvenient to those in power.

A court that reserves its constitutional courage for safe and inconsequential cases, and abandons it precisely when it matters most, has dishonoured the robe. I call upon the High Court to take urgent cognisance of the circumstances of Mr. Abronye’s detention, including the reported absence of a signed and certified remand order.

The writ of habeas corpus is not a relic. It is a living constitutional remedy. It exists for exactly this kind of moment. We call upon the judiciary to stand and be counted.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF SILENCE

Ghana has been here before.The culture of silence does not announce itself with a decree. It does not arrive at your door with a proclamation.It arrives exactly like this, incrementally and surgically. A communicator arrested here, an organiser picked up there, a regional chairman remanded into security custody.The message spreads quietly through every rank of the opposition: this is what dissent costs.The Mahama administration has calculated that intimidating NPP communicators and silencing its regional leadership will allow it to govern without accountability and shield its mounting incompetence from scrutiny.That calculation is profoundly wrong. And it will fail.

THIS WILL NOT WORK

The NPP will not be gagged.Not by arrest. Not by bail denial. Not by BNI detention. Not by any instrument of fear this government deploys.The freedom to speak, to criticise power and to hold government accountable is not a privilege granted by any administration.It is a constitutional birthright. And it cannot be revoked by any government on earth.Abronye DC’s voice may be temporarily caged. Let this government understand clearly: a thousand voices will rise in its place.That is not a threat. That is the unbreakable promise of Ghanaian democracy.

OUR DEMANDS

We make the following demands. They are clear. They are non-negotiable.First. Mr. Kwame Baffoe, Abronye DC, must be released from BNI custody immediately. His detention is constitutionally indefensible and must end today.Second. The NPP’s legal team will mount a full constitutional challenge to this prosecution, including a challenge to the application of Sections 207 and 208 of Act 29 against political speech where civil remedies are available and adequate.

Third. Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee must summon the Inspector General of Police and the Director-General of the BNI to publicly account for every decision taken in this matter.Fourth. Ghana’s civil society, independent media and legal profession must add their voices now. The time to defend freedom is always before it is fully lost. Never after.

Fifth. We call upon the High Court to take urgent cognisance of Mr. Abronye’s detention and the reported absence of a signed and certified remand order. The writ of habeas corpus exists for precisely this moment. The judiciary is the last line of defence between the citizen and the unchecked power of the Executive. We call upon it to stand and be counted.

CONCLUSION[Final section. Build slowly to the closing declaration.]In 1992, the people of Ghana made a solemn covenant with themselves and with history.They said: never again shall the machinery of the state be turned against the citizen’s right to speak.Never again shall political opinion be treated as criminal conduct.Never again shall the instruments of national security be weaponised to detain political opponents for the convenience of a sitting government.

The prosecution of Abronye DC violates that covenant. So does the prosecution of Baba Amando. So does the arrest of David Essandoh. So does the dawn raid on Adenta Kumi and the attempted security raid on Reverend Ntim Fordjour. Taken together, they constitute a sustained and deliberate assault on the democratic foundation of this Republic.

President Kufuor abolished criminal libel to set Ghana free. President Mahama is rebuilding it, brick by brick, to cage the opposition.That project ends here.

Ghana did not travel the long and painful road from authoritarian rule to constitutional democracy so that a new generation of rulers could quietly dismantle it, one prosecution at a time.And to those in this government who believe they can abuse power without consequence, I say this clearly and on the record:

The day of justice and accountability will come. It will come under this Parliament, or the next. But it will come. That is not a promise. That is a constitutional certainty.We built this democracy to last. We will defend it in the courts, in Parliament, and in the full glare of public opinion, with every constitutional weapon at our disposal.

The culture of silence is not coming back to Ghana.Not now. Not on our watch. Not ever.

FREE ABRONYE DC. IMMEDIATELY AND UNCONDITIONALLY.

Hon. Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-MarkinMinority Leader, Parliament of GhanaMember of Parliament, Effutu ConstituencyAccra, Ghana | 17th May 2026