The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the party will follow the trial of its activist Nana Darkwa to its final conclusion. Nana Ohene Ntow says the party is very much interested in the case and will observe how the police and the judiciary deal with it. The NPP stalwart’s comment comes after the remand and subsequent release of an NPP activist Nana Darkwa whose comments on an Accra-based radio station caused a stir. Nana Darkwa was whisked away by the police shortly after suggesting that ex-president Rawlings deliberately set fire to his own house – which has since been reduced to ashes – to make a case for a new one. The arrest was at the instance of Mr Rawlings’ aide, Kofi Adams. Hours after his arrest however, a circuit court remanded him in prison custody for two weeks on a charge of spreading false information with the intention to cause panic, but a High Court on Friday granted him bail. Nana Ntow and his colleague member of the NPP fraternity drove to the studios of the Joy FM to tell their story to News Editor Matilda Asante Asiedu. According to Nana Ntow, the New Patriotic Party will not fold its arms to observe government deliberately bend the rules. “A political party in government is clearly attempting to use state institutions to curb the frontiers of free speech. “What Kofi Adams has used the police institution and the judicial system to do is an attempt by the NDC to use state institutions to subvert free speech and the New Patriotic Party is not going to sit down and allow that to happen,” he said. He said the NPP believes in the rule of law and expects that Nana Darkwa must not be influenced by any external pressures. “As long as it goes along the proper road of the liberties and the right of the individual within the contest of the rule of law, we will see,” he said. The NPP General Secretary also indicated that the unfolding development is a test of freedom of speech. “I think that today, the liberty of the people of Ghana has been put to the test; the right Ghanaians to express themselves has been put to the test,” he said. Political capital Nana Ohene Ntow minced no words when he admitted that the development is feather in the cap of the NPP. Asked whether he was making political capital out of the situation, Nana Ntow responded “big time, let me be straight with you.” The matter has taken a political twist with the Minority in Parliament early Friday morning, boycotting proceedings in solidarity with their member. It is however unclear if the Minority will stand by their decision now that Nana Darkwa has been released. Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana