NewzFormer UN Senior Governance Advisor, Prof. Baffour Agyemang-Duah, has urged Ghana’s political parties to stop portraying criminal investigations involving their members as partisan attacks. He insisted that politicians must be held accountable under the law like every other citizen.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Thursday, August 6, amid the debate over the arrest of persons affiliated with the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Prof. Agyeman-Duah said allegations of corruption or misuse of state resources should be dealt with through the legal process rather than political rhetoric. “If there’s a real case of corruption or stealing of state resources, and there’s evidence for that, the proper thing is to secure the arrest, follow the necessary protocols, allow the person to be tried and let judgment be given,” he said.
He observed that both the NPP and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) have, over the years, developed a tendency to defend party members facing criminal allegations instead of allowing the justice system to determine their culpability. According to him, this practice creates the impression that politicians deserve special treatment simply because of their political affiliation. “I get disturbed because it seems to me that for the politicians, any attack on one member is an attack on all.
“This idea of jumping to the defence of a member who has been caught by the law, which is done by the two parties over the years, is really clouding how we deal with criminals.” Prof. Agyemang-Duah argued that while concerns about selective justice, freedom of expression, and high bail conditions deserve attention, they should not be invoked to shield politicians from investigations when there is credible evidence of wrongdoing. He said reducing every prosecution involving a politician to a partisan contest weakens public confidence in the country’s accountability institutions and distracts from the facts of individual cases.
According to him, complaints about selective justice and perceived judicial bias are not unique to the current administration but have surfaced under successive governments whenever prominent political figures have been prosecuted. The governance expert warned that Ghana risks undermining the rule of law if political parties continue to treat criminal proceedings as political battles rather than legal processes. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has warned that Ghana’s democracy risks being undermined if political parties continue to portray every prosecution of their members as an attack on the entire party.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Thursday, August 6, amid the ongoing political debate over the arrest of some opposition figures, Prof. Agyeman-Duah said the country’s political culture is becoming increasingly unhealthy, with partisan interests often taking precedence over accountability. “I think our politics, unfortunately, is traversing a path that is very slippery,” he said.
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