A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) communication team, Eric Delanyo Alifo Esq., has taken a strong swipe at former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, accusing him of turning key state institutions into political tools during his time in office.
Speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Alifo questioned the impartiality of the judiciary and other independent bodies, insisting that Akufo-Addo’s administration packed these institutions with loyalists of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“The president was the one that appointed the Chief Justice so if the president can appoint, why can’t he remove except that if you want to remove, there’s a process that you must follow and everybody should be observing that,” Alifo said, touching on the powers and limits of presidential appointments under the constitution.
He went on to argue that the framers of Ghana’s constitution could not have anticipated a future where institutions like the Electoral Commission and the Council of State would become partisan.
“The problem is like I said from the beginning, at the time of making the constitution, the framers wouldn’t envisaged that there would be a partisan Council of State, there will be partisan EC,” he added.
Alifo further accused President Akufo-Addo of deliberately politicizing nearly every key institution in the country: “Nana Akufo-Addo especially, even on the Electoral Commission, you put NPP communicators there, in the court, you put NPP people there, everywhere. He bastardised all the institutions, that’s the problem.”
His criticism didn’t stop at appointments. Alifo also accused the former president of using the Supreme Court to push his agenda.
“That’s why even when you are going to the court, if the courts were objective, there wouldn’t be a problem. For 8 years, Akufo-Addo has bullied us with this same Supreme Court,” he stated.
