A senior lecturer at the UPSA Law School and member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) communication team, Ishaq Ibrahim Esq., has criticised the government over what he described as an “unconstitutional and needless” attempted arrest of Assin South MP, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour.
The arrest attempt followed allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering related to two suspicious aircraft that landed at Kotoka International Airport.
Operatives from the National Intelligence Bureau stormed Rev. Fordjour’s residence on April 9, sparking controversy over the government’s handling of the situation.
Speaking on the Weekly Review Segment on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Mr. Ibrahim described the incident as a breach of parliamentary privileges and a clear display of government intolerance toward dissenting voices.
He further accused the government of using state institutions to intimidate the opposition.
He said, “We are dealing with a government that is just intolerant of the opposition. In every functional, free speech is one of the fundamental pillars. This government doesn’t want people to speak openly. He [ Ntim Fordjour] is an individual who is in a privilege position, he’s a member of parliament. He said he has seen something or heard something that is worrying to him, as a concerned citizen, he needs to flag it out.”
According to him, instead of the government to investigate Rev. Fordjour’s claims, it s rather threatening him with arrest.
He explained that as a member of parliament, Rev. Fordjour has privileges under Articles 117 and 118 of the Ghanaian Constitution.
Ibrahim Esq. argued that these privileges were disregarded by the government.
Ibrahim Esq. added, “The government’s response is actually very disappointing. A listening government would have taken it as serious concern and if possible, investigate it. But we saw surrogates of the government threatening the guy [ Ntim Fordjour], if he doesn’t shut up, he will be picked up, he’ll be arrested. On Newsfile, last week, we saw Sammy Gyamfi openly threatening him so here, we realised that the police have no operational independence. They are more or less directed by the NDC to do their works for them. The guy [ Ntim Fordjour] has even privileges under 117 and 118 but this government doesn’t respect that….. What the security officers did was needless.”
