The opposition National Democratic Congress Opposition (NDC) has petitioned the Commonwealth Secretariat over what it described as persecution of its supporters.
According to the NDC, the President Akufo-Addo led administration is using state agencies like the judiciary to harass its members.
“Since assuming power in 2016 the message of physical violence against political opponents that President Nana Addo Danquah preached and championed before 2016 General Election has turned into structural institutional and systematic forms of violence in the form of human rights violations, harassment and political persecution against members and supporters the National Democratic Congress,” the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah told the media in a press conference.
He continued “Significantly, buffer institutions such as the judiciary whose core mandate is to mediate between the interest of opposing parties, and ensure the promotion of the rule of law and the promotion of individual liberties have become systematic enfeeble with the attendance of loss of public confidence in these institutions,”
Some top members of the NDC are facing prosecution for various alleged offenses among them is the Ranking Member of Finance in Parliament, Cassiel Ato Forson.
The former Deputy Minister is being prosecuted for causing financial loss to the state over the purchase of some ambulances in 2017 under the Mahama administration.
Mr. Ato Forson attributed his prosecution to his stiff opposition to the government’s new tax measures.
However, this assertion by the former Deputy Finance Minister has been refuted by the Deputy Attorney General, Diana Asonaba Dapaah.
She described Ato Forson’s allegation as “laden with factual misrepresentations and calculated at scandalizing the criminal proceedings pending in the High Court against the Member of Parliament and exposing the Attorney-General to prejudice and hatred.”
