Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Effutu, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, has alleged that the prosecution of the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Kwame Baffoe, mirrors the suppression and intimidation associated with the Provisional National Defence Council era.
Addressing a press conference at the NPP Headquarters in Asylum Down, Accra, on Sunday, 17th May, 2026, Osahen Afenyo Markin accused the administration of President John Dramani Mahama of using the criminal justice system to intimidate political opponents and suppress dissenting voices.
He described the arrest, prosecution, and remand of Abronye DC as part of what he called a broader pattern of political persecution targeted at members of the opposition New Patriotic Party.
According to the Minority Leader, the developments surrounding the case evoke painful memories of the period under the PNDC military regime, when journalists, activists, and critics of the government were allegedly harassed, detained, and tortured for expressing their views.
“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,” Afenyo Markin stated.
He recalled several incidents from Ghana’s political history, including the imprisonment of journalists and newspaper editors under criminal libel and false publication laws.
Afenyo Markin referenced the cases involving Tommy Thompson of the Free Press, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Junior, Kwesi Pratt Junior, and lawyer Akoto Ampaw, arguing that the current prosecution of Abronye DC bears similarities to those periods of political repression.
“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,” he said.
The Minority Leader argued that although Ghana repealed the criminal libel law in 2001 under the administration of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, the current administration was allegedly attempting to recreate the same environment through Sections 207 and 208 of the Criminal Offences Act.
“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,” he asserted.
Afenyo Markin further claimed that the arrest of Abronye DC, together with cases involving Baba Amando, David Essandoh, Adenta Kumi, and Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, formed part of what he described as a systematic effort to silence critics of government.
“These are not isolated incidents. They are selected examples from a deeply troubling and growing list,” he stated.
The Minority Leader also condemned the decision to remand Abronye DC into the custody of the Bureau of National Investigations, insisting that criticism of a judge should not be treated as a national security matter.
“This has nothing to do with criminal justice and everything to do with political intimidation,” he stressed.
Afenyo Markin warned that Ghana risks returning to what he described as the “culture of silence” if state institutions are used to target political opponents.
“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,” he said.
He called for the immediate release of Abronye DC and urged the judiciary, civil society organizations, and the media to defend constitutional freedoms and democratic governance in the country.
