The main opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC), has petitioned the Secretariat of the Commonwealth of Nations, over what it called human rights violations, criminal persecutions and harassment of its members and supporters by the ruling Government.
Signed by the Feneral Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, said the petition is to draw the attention of the international body to instances of abuse of the judiciary, political persecutions, and abuse of human rights.
Highlighting some acts against the party, the NDC alleged that ever since President Akufo-Addo assumed office his administration has introduced “structural, institutional and systematic forms of violence.”
“Since assuming the reins of power in 2016, the message of physical violence against political opponents that Nana Addo preached and championed before the 2016 general elections has turned into structural, institutional and systematic forms of violence in the form of human rights violations, harassment, and political persecutions against members and supporters of the NDC.”
It added that apart from political opponents, institutions like the judiciary have become systematically enfeebled under the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“Significantly, buffer institutions such as the judiciary whose core mandate is to mediate between the interests of opposing parties and ensure the promotion of the rule of law and individual liberties have become systematically enfeebled with attendant loss of public confidence in theses institutions”
“The image of the judiciary has been further dented by the delivery of unreason court judgment which read more like partisan or polemical pieces than learned judicial reasoning consistent with judicial standard in the legal system of common law countries” the petition contained.
It therefore observed that the action of the government threatens Ghana’s political stability and further erodes democratic values, a situation they noted has made Nana Addo become a “democratic despot who brooks no opposition.”
The NDC says they are therefore calling on Commonwealth to bring a team of investigators and lawyers to assess the adequacy and quality of the justice being administered to its members and keenly follow the political and human rights situation in the country.
They also want Commonwealth to call upon the “government of Ghana to put a stop to these persecution harassment, threats and killing of supporters and members of the NDC.”
