The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has accused the government of pursuing a campaign of political vendetta following the arrest of the NPP Bono Regional Chairman, Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC, and the removal of Gertrude Torkornoo as Chief Justice.

Speaking in Parliament before the UK Minister for International Development, Baroness Jennifer Chapman, and other civil society organisations, Afenyo-Markin condemned what he described as disturbing acts of political excess.

On the arrest of Abronye DC, he said, “For instance, on the issue of justice, human rights, I mean, just yesterday I saw one of my regional chairpersons on just an act of disdain, and he had been handcuffed and being pushed into black maria. These are things that I feel we don’t need. It’s a blot on a democracy. We don’t need it.”

The Minority Leader added that the responsibility lies with the government to ensure fairness.

“The excesses of institutions where government has to take responsibility can be improved upon. And of course, we, the minority, are not satisfied or happy with how the Chief Justice was recently removed. We see it as more of politics than really ensuring that there’s some accountability,” he said.

He admitted that new governments have the right to investigate past administrations, but insisted that the law must be applied fairly.

“Once you’ve been in office for eight years, we expect that a new government coming in with its recent policy may want to investigate… They must. But we also expect that the law will be applied in a humane way.

"So, for instance, if you are investigating someone, you ask the person to report. You don’t just handcuff a person when they are going to come to you for investigation, and then you say, I have put a bail bond for say, 50,000 on you, look for property before I do anything.”

He urged the government to address these excesses to strengthen Ghana’s democracy.

“I’ve had the chance to govern. I am a moderate politician. I believe that the excesses where the hardliners take the centre and they take the base when the government comes into office must be a thing of the past,” he said.

He admitted that such problems had also occurred under the previous NPP administration but warned against continuing the cycle of political revenge.

“I must admit that some of these excesses happened in our time, our eight years in office, but we cannot continue with the vicious cycle of you do me, I do you. There are key governance issues that I believe as a democracy we can focus on to improve the lives of our people.”

Afenyo-Markin assured both Parliament and the public that the Minority would play a responsible role. “So I want to assure you that we will be constructive in our position. We are 87, but our aim is to be constructive. We’ve been in government before. I’ve been a government leader before. I know how difficult it is to run the chamber, so mine will need to be constructive, fix my issues across, and the majority will make a decision.”

“I will have my say, and I take this opportunity to assure our father, the Speaker, that we are his children and will continue to support him,” he added.