Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu is against the trend of arresting persons for insulting the President or government officials.
Although he says insulting is not the right thing to do, arresting people is not the best because the state will end up arresting the whole society.
He makes the point that the number of people who have been arrested f or their utterances under President John Dramani Mahama in one and a half years is way higher than the number arrested in the 8 years of the Akufo-Addo administration.
This, he said, is a bad record for President Mahama and his administration.
He says there is a need for a national discussion on how to deal with this situation, maybe fining or name-shaming persons.
“It is a bad record for John Mahama for 8 years; the number of people Akufo-Addo arrested is not up to the number John Mahama has arrested in one and a half years.
“We said Akufo-Addo was ‘mampam’, did he arrest me? Nana Yaa called Akufo-Addo Nebuchadnezzar; was he arrested? Allow Ghanaians to talk.
“As for the insult, there is nothing you can, its part of the accountability thing. Jerry Rawlings called for Kufuor, a sitting president, a thief. Did Kufuor arrest JJ? You can’t shut people down by arrests,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, August 8 while commenting on the Democracy Under Threat demonstration by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has said that the demonstration staged by the New Patriotic Party 9NPP) dubbed ” Democracy Under Attack ” was against injustice.
He says that the NPP is not fighting against accountability, but they are resisting selective justice.
Speaking at the “Democracy Under Attack” demonstration on Thursday, August 6, Afenyo-Markin said, “We are not against accountability, but we are against selective justice.”
Among the key concerns is the acquittal and discharge of former Chief Executive Officer of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, a development the NPP argues raises serious questions about the consistency and impartiality of the country’s justice system.
The party is also protesting what it has described as the arbitrary arrest, detention and alleged harassment of several of its members by state investigative and security agencies.
The party contends that these actions are politically motivated and designed to intimidate members of the opposition.
