Member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) communication team, Awal Mohammed, has accused the Ghana Police Service of reviving practices reminiscent of the 1990s in their handling of political dissent.
Speaking on Prime Insight on Joy Prime, Saturday, September 27, he condemned what he called selective justice and an unlawful crackdown on opposition voices.
“There is no way in our laws that says that if I insult you, I can be arrested by the police, handcuffed, and sent to court. It is not in our statutes like that,” he said.
While making clear his opposition to the use of insults in political discourse, Mr. Mohammed stressed the importance of safeguarding free speech.
“I am against insults in any form or shape to anyone, not even a public officer. And I have never done that in my political life. But decriminalisation of free speech is important, and our constitution is clear on that.”
Drawing comparisons to Ghana’s political past, he recalled incidents where journalists were jailed for their writings.
“The high-handedness with which the police are treating some people within the NPP fraternity belongs to the ’90s.
“The last time I saw that was in 1998 when Malik Kwaku Baako and Alhaji Haruna Atta were jailed for 30 days. That was why President Kufuor, after he won the endorsement, repealed the criminal libel law.”
