Abronye Arrest: NDC want to bring back Culture of Silence - Afenyo-Markin & Dr Zaato react

Added: 2026-05-23

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[00:00:07]Oh, yeah. New Patriotic Party. I'm a new school.

[00:00:37]Was not from Brooklyn.

[00:00:51]Uh since I will be winning them.

[00:01:02]No one was in there.

[00:01:11]Our friend abroad here.

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[00:01:17]No, cuz I can say to you I don't know.

[00:01:20]Was in the court. Oh, yes, sir.

[00:01:23]Welcome.

[00:01:26]Judge ought to be not selling it there.

[00:01:29]Sir, woman abroad in Bella.

[00:01:33]And it was an opportunity to fear say opportunity to prison until they will be assembling here.

[00:01:41]Now, I'm dreaming now.

[00:01:42]Sir, what will fire?

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[00:01:47]The judge in our assembly came here.

[00:01:50]Now, so educate is me from our court to remand.

[00:01:54]And I make you can come there. Oh, yeah, you're a supreme court.

[00:01:58]Oh, yeah. When you're young Oh yeah, on your new phone Martin pebble or a lawyer.

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[00:02:27]It didn't go to fear that is our punishment.

[00:02:30]Into bill as lawyer sir.

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[00:02:43]Bring your cat is a mean old lawyer baby kiss kiss me out.

[00:02:49]Not that what's up boy and I play. OKAY, I'M USING MINA AND YOU AND RONALD.

[00:02:57]I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY JUDGE YOU CAN DO OR SEND YOU GO TO PRISON.

[00:03:01]I was in the concert room and so on and SO FORTH AND BE A LIE.

[00:03:07]50 OR MONEY RULING that I was going to go to remind.

[00:03:12]Now in the COURT ORDER THEM WILL ON TO ME SIGNING.

[00:03:15]Meanwhile court they don't want on your manual court or your DIGITAL COURT. I DON'T CARE SAYING no no all time. Into within 5 minutes after proceedings or they AT LEAST CLOCK AND AUTOMATIC PRINT.

[00:03:28]JUDGE WHY IS he serious on that one within 5 minutes and all the automatic.

[00:03:33]Now the ruling now.

[00:03:34]Now I sign.

[00:03:36]After the feeding you do no no no ruling or signing to question and people feel THEY BE SAYING THAT. B AND I FEEL WHAT THEY ARE BRINGING UP CALL ONE CHANNEL.

[00:03:49]POLICE IF YOU WANT TO WHAT THEY ARE BRINGING UP CALL B and I and cat and what they are doing to them.

[00:04:02]second chance presidency in your piano second chance for them 8 years uh 80 YES, I MEAN IT.

[00:05:30]IGP NO ONLY CHIEF JUSTICE SECTION 207 TO 2018 ONE WORD BUSINESS AS USUAL. WHY ARE POLITICS into one man plan? Because they have to test them.

[00:06:13]No one is one number. What they win votes.

[00:06:21]Position.

[00:06:22]Thank you very much. And before we went on break, we were playing a video of Honorable Alexander Afenyo-Markin in the minority in Parliament. Yes. I've said this and I'll say it again. Love him or loathe him. Love him or hate him.

[00:06:36]But Afenyo-Markin will go into history as one of the most consequential minority leaders.

[00:06:41]He will also go in as one of the most effective and efficient minority leaders. I don't know if it's because of Afenyo's sufficiency effectiveness. The NDC The NPP in Parliament would have been run over by the huge numbers of the NPP and NDC. He has managed to keep that very that small minority very relevant and very effective in the house. So, love him or hate him, he is proving his worth. He's proving his effectiveness and efficiency and he's doing very well and I think his party and Ghana's democracy itself owe him some amount of gratitude for the good work he's doing.

[00:07:14]Before I come to this revelation, one of the most visible media practitioners in this country is a gentleman by name Mr. Samson Lardy Anyenini. He's also a lawyer.

[00:07:25]I want to come with a direct quote from Samson Lardy Anyenini so we can contextualize this. He says, and I quote, "In less than 2 years, these repressive laws have been used more than the entirety of the Akufo-Addo regime by by current government."

[00:07:42]In fact, he actually went on to say that it's about 2/3. That if you take the 13 or 14 months of the NDC regime, they have used, abused, and misused these oppressive laws against innocent Ghanaians more than the whole 8 years of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration. That is a fact and research by quoted by Samson Lardy Anyenini.

[00:08:05]I am saying this what you want to put us in context. That administration Akufo-Addo administration was was told were intolerant.

[00:08:12]The Akufo-Addo administration were told was bringing in culture of silence. That is why important personalities like Mr. Sam Jonah had the to go on air to say that the culture of silence is creeping into this country. And we were told that journalists like uh uh uh Manasseh and others were persecuted under that administration.

[00:08:34]So, you would then think that when under this research, this thing would be different. But we have been told and this is saying that if that administration was considered repressive, considering what is happening now, how early it is happening, then we are in for some serious trouble. We are in for a more regressive and an oppressive regime. And that is what the the research is saying.

[00:08:54]Since this government has come into power right now, more than 13 people have been arrested for what they have said on TV or on radio or online. For what they have said. More than 13 If you add Martin Kpebu, who has been arrested for what he has said on air, you are looking at more than 40 people. That means that technically every month, if you do it like that, somebody has been arrested for what the person have said. And there's something None of these people have so far been convicted by a court.

[00:09:25]That means that for whatever reason they were arrested, no court has found that there's enough evidence to convict them.

[00:09:31]I want us to understand that.

[00:09:33]That none of them in the 13 the 13 people, you can start from them. And then none of them have been convicted by a court that what you have said actually merits a crime. That means that in almost all these cases, these people have been arrested, sometimes denied bail at the insistence of the state, and then they have to suffer for it only for them to be removed on some kind of bail, and then usually the process the cases goes to die.

[00:09:58]That means that somebody the only way objective of this is to show them where power lies.

[00:10:02]And I'm saying that, look, power corrupts and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.

[00:10:09]When these things keep happening, you may say it is done. Or you may say that similar things happened yesterday, and I've mentioned them. They happened yesterday. There were other people that were picked. There were other people that were arrested yesterday.

[00:10:20]Like something shows that we the recent has not affected this area of our economy. Something shows that we have not learned any lesson from those oppressive regimes or from what happened. If we have learned, we shouldn't be doing what we are doing now. And I always say this is because, look, the current Attorney General went after 2016 when there was this I hear his house was like state went there, they arrested him in the middle of the night.

[00:10:43]They violated every single right he had.

[00:10:45]The current Minister of Energy suffered a similar fate.

[00:10:48]The current Director General of EOCO suffered under state repression to so much so that his businesses we are told were destroyed. And all these things happened to these men whose only crime then was that they served in the former administration.

[00:11:05]Again, my point is that we are expected that we will see a kind of what? Recent in this city. That we say, "Look, In the case of In the case of Remonacha, he was not an an appointee. Appointee, good.

[00:11:14]>> He was not. Thank you. I agree. But that also to show you could see what state power Let's agree, raw state power could do to what? Appointees and also what?

[00:11:22]Ordinary citizens. Then you wouldn't expect that today these same people once you are power can sit down and say, "Let's pull it down a bit.

[00:11:31]Let's be more measured because we know what can happen when power changes. We know what can happen. But it seems that that call has not been heard. It seems that that has not been the case. So my question then becomes, here's a government that has said that is touting its economic benefits, that is touting what they have achieved.

[00:11:50]Inflation, fuel prices, exchange rate, all these good things.

[00:11:55]So why is this same government so averse to criticisms?

[00:11:59]For me, these wanton arrests speak of what a certain amount of frustration.

[00:12:04]It's coming from a place of frustration, not a place of strength. Because if you are that strong, if people are really feeling the impact of your policies, you shouldn't care what some Fante Kinky or Fante comedy says.

[00:12:19]If you really think that the people are benefiting from what you're doing, you shouldn't care what Okudzeto Ablakwa says. You shouldn't care what say Obama Pokuase says.

[00:12:27]You shouldn't care. If you really think that you have solved problem. If you really think that dumsor is not a problem, why do you arrest somebody whose only crime is that he put up a poster that says that dumsor is back? SO ISN'T I MEAN, WHY SHOULD THAT lead to arrest by the state?

[00:12:43]People will say vicious things, yes. But we shouldn't criminalize criminalize foolishness.

[00:12:49]The person says something that is vicious, that is that in itself we should not criminalize it. We shouldn't criminalize stupidity.

[00:12:56]You know, the people are stupid, we shouldn't criminalize it. We shouldn't criminalize criticism. If the people are saying indiscretion or doing that, we shouldn't criminalize it. We shouldn't criminalize loose talk.

[00:13:06]If the people are speaking loosely, you are the government, you you can control almost the communication machine of this country. Put up counter evidence, counter facts to do that. But look, sometimes what we then do is that these things do not stop people from being, let me say, mischievous, from being devious, or from saying similar things.

[00:13:25]If they could, the first person that was arrested will not see them happening.

[00:13:29]But more people are doing because sometimes you embolden them.

[00:13:32]When you do this, people are not going to all of a sudden say, "Hey, I'm afraid I'm going to be arrested, so I'll keep quiet." They're not going to keep quiet because sometimes some of these people are looking for the limelight, the political limelight, and you give it to them.

[00:13:42]My point is that the frustrations of the people of the masses should not be uh visited on people who have I heard somebody say, "Because of cheap data and and cheap China phones, people now have the Yes, if somebody is bored and sit down and thinks that he's going to criticize government, don't give him the limelight. Right. Don't threaten media uh uh freedom. Don't threaten the freedom of individuals because people are going to talk. They're going to communicate.

[00:14:05]If your performance is that stellar, let it speak for itself." Right. And look, there's a popular uh uh apartheid not apartheid genocide uh uh poem that is going on. So, then I'd like to to to to quote it. It's the first they came.

[00:14:20]First they came for the workers, I said I wasn't one of them. They came for the unionists, I said I wasn't a union. They came for all the other people, I said I wasn't one of them.

[00:14:30]I can go You can go to the list. By the time they come for you, there's nobody to fight for you.

[00:14:36]First, they're coming for Let me say NPP members.

[00:14:41]Then you said, "Oh, it's justified."

[00:14:43]And what is worrying is that people in defense of this make a false equivalence.

[00:14:47]It happened yesterday, it's happening again. I say, "Yes, but that the fact that happened yesterday and you are making it happen now only fester the fact that it happened tomorrow."

[00:14:57]The thing is that yesterday you were on the receiving end. Today you are the giving end. Has it bothered on you that tomorrow you might also be on the receiving end?

[00:15:05]So, for me, that lesson should be now they're coming after political opponents.

[00:15:09]Now they're using the law against sometimes low-hanging fruits in or some of the ground lying fruits of the political chain.

[00:15:16]Men and women who under under normal circumstances cannot even guarantee a decent a bail or anything. And so that is the ridiculous low low bail conditions.

[00:15:26]>> Okay. So, we need something and that is why I think that the judiciary or the chief justice might come in because if something is a misdemeanor, I'm not a lawyer. If it's a simple thing, sometimes the the the the bail conditions make you sit down and wonder what that actually is a bail condition.

[00:15:42]>> Mhm.

[00:15:42]Now, that is not the government. That is coming from, let me see, the bench. And the bench may say that, "Okay, we have decided determined that based on the severity." But I'm saying that if somebody's only crime is that Dumsor is back. And you say, "Go and bring a house in Accra for a surety for the loan." If this guy can build a house in Accra, will he sit down and be saying things like this?

[00:16:05]>> Mhm.

[00:16:06]If this guy has that amount of money, will he sit down and be making such statements? Okay. So, my point is that >> [clears throat] >> I don't know how we can talk about the bench. Maybe they might have to say, "Look, for this misdemeanor and this other things, let's as for the arrest, the state will arrest. The state will do this and the state will come and say we don't want to have any, how do you call that thing?

[00:16:24]Bail." But should the judiciary also then sit down and say, "Look, these people and also make sure that their bail conditions casually match." Somebody comes and you see the person, he's hungry.

[00:16:34]>> Mhm.

[00:16:35]You you you've seen the guy. There's nothing to show that other guy. And then you are giving him a loan. That means that you you just want to keep him there. My point is we should be able to have somebody there that says, "Hey, look, look, for these issues, they will happen. You cannot have a democracy without, let me say, loose talk.

[00:16:49]>> Okay.

[00:16:49]>> You cannot have a democracy without freedom of speech. You cannot have a democracy without, let me even say, rabble-rousers. Political rabble-rousers. You will have them. They are fruits of the system. The only place you don't have them is in a oppressive regime, North Korea, China, other places where you cannot breathe. But once you are a place of this thing, Okay. and finally I want to end on this. It was the NDC and the PNDC and the PNDC that brought us the criminal libel law.

[00:17:12]Right.

[00:17:14]It was the NPP and Nana Akufo-Addo that repealed the criminal libel They did They did criminal libel laws came with a culture of silence and everybody said it was bad.

[00:17:21]>> Yeah. It was the NPP that repealed the criminal libel laws.

[00:17:25]And I'm saying that today, it's like the NPP is the one suffering from the repeal of those criminal libel laws.

[00:17:30]>> Okay. We shouldn't go back to criminalize free speech.

[00:17:33]>> All right. We should factor into our system that loose speech uh maybe some inaccurate speech or something. People have said this. The culture of silence is bad. Yeah. Like somebody said it that we should any day any night we would tolerate the culture of the noise. Okay.

[00:17:48]Culture of even loose noise any day any time over the culture of silence because our democracy thrives when people are allowed to speak and speak freely. Okay.