Former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has expressed concern over the arrest and remand of Salomey Bafor Awiti, a nurse and mother of three from Techiman, in connection with an allegation of abetting the publication of false news.
According to Dr Bawumia, Madam Awiti was picked up in the middle of the night by national intelligence officers and subsequently remanded for two weeks.
He described the development as worrying and said it did not reflect the kind of Ghana he wanted to see built.
“This is not the Ghana we want to build,” Dr Bawumia said in a statement.
He said that if given the opportunity to govern, his administration would ensure that intelligence agencies were not used to pursue citizens over insults directed at the President or other individuals.
Dr Bawumia, however, said he did not support political insults and called on actors in the political space to maintain decorum.
“I have always disavowed a politics of insults and will remind all in the political space of the need to be decorous.
The ideas we need to transform our nation won’t come from insults,” he said.
He nevertheless cautioned the government against actions that, in his view, could infringe on citizens’ right to free speech.
Dr Bawumia described freedom of expression, even when views expressed may be unpopular or unpalatable, as a fundamental pillar of Ghana’s democratic system.
He also accused the government of what he described as the selective application of the law, arguing that some citizens were able to make insulting comments without facing arrest while others were prosecuted because of the person targeted.
“Even more worrying, is the government’s continuous selective application of our laws,” he said.
Dr Bawumia called for the release of Madam Awiti and other citizens whom he said had been similarly charged and jailed.
