New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has expressed deep concern over the arrest of Salomey Bafor Awiti, a Techiman-based nurse and mother of three, including a four-year-old child.
Reacting to news of the arrest of the 40-year-old mother of three in a Facebook post, Dr Bawumia said the ‘rambo style’ arrest by the national security was never the best.
Madam Awiti Bafor has since been arraigned before the Adenta Circuit Court and remanded for two weeks on suspicion of abetting the publication of false news.
“The story…is very worrying to read,” Bawumia wrote. “This is not the Ghana we want to build.”
He gave a clear assurance that under an NPP government, intelligence agencies would never be reduced to chasing ordin6ary citizens for insulting the President or anyone else.
While he has always rejected the politics of insults and continues to urge politicians to speak with decorum, Bawumia was firm that free speech — even when uncomfortable — remains the foundation of Ghana’s democracy.
“Any infringement on the right to free speech pushes our democracy backwards,” he said.
What worries him most, he added, is the selective way the laws appear to be applied. Some people insult freely and walk away, while others are locked up simply because the government dislikes the target of their words.
Dr Bawumia ended with a direct appeal: “Please release Salomey Bafor Awiti and others who have been similarly charged and jailed.
“God bless our homeland Ghana and help us to resist oppressors rule!” he wrote.
Awiti, a senior nursing officer at Abrafi Women and Children’s Hospital in Techiman, was arrested around midnight on 13 September at her home in Hansua.
She appeared before the Adenta Complex Court on 17 September, pleaded not guilty to the charge of abetment of crime (publication of false news), and was remanded for two weeks on national security grounds while investigations continue.
Police claim she helped circulate content linked to the anonymous TikTok account “Ghana Jollof,” which has been critical of the government. Her family has denied any such connection.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
