Minority Leader Afenyo-Markin Condemns Arrest and Remand of Abronye DC

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:02]Yes.

[00:00:08]New Patriotic Party was not from Rambo.

[00:01:13]A police officer or a cassette here judge me.

[00:01:17]No.

[00:01:20]Was in the cocoa.

[00:01:22]Welcome.

[00:01:36]I was going to prison.

[00:01:38]On today with the assembly.

[00:01:51]Is me by the court to remand.

[00:01:54]All of them chicken carry or you are in the Supreme Court.

[00:01:58]Oh, yeah. Where are your Supreme Court?

[00:02:00]I hear.

[00:02:05]I hear.

[00:02:14]I hear.

[00:02:16]I hear.

[00:02:18]I hear.

[00:02:23]I hear.

[00:02:26]I hear.

[00:02:28]I hear.

[00:02:31]I hear.

[00:02:33]I hear.

[00:02:36]I hear.

[00:02:38]I hear.

[00:02:41]I hear.

[00:02:44]I hear.

[00:02:46]I hear.

[00:02:49]I hear.

[00:02:51]I hear.

[00:02:54]I hear.

[00:02:56]I hear.

[00:02:59]I hear.

[00:03:01]I hear.

[00:03:04]I hear.

[00:03:07]I hear.

[00:03:09]I hear.

[00:03:12]I HEAR.

[00:03:14]I HEAR.

[00:03:17]I HEAR.

[00:03:19]I HEAR.

[00:03:22]I HEAR.

[00:03:25]I HEAR.

[00:03:27]I HEAR.

[00:03:30]I HEAR.

[00:03:32]I HEAR.

[00:03:35]I HEAR.

[00:03:37]I HEAR.

[00:03:40]I HEAR.

[00:03:42]I HEAR.

[00:03:45]I HEAR.

[00:03:48]I HEAR.

[00:03:50]I HEAR.

[00:03:53]I PRESIDENCY FOR 8 YEARS NOW AND I judge this parliament They are someone in minority.

[00:05:29]IGP the 207 to 2018 >> Business as usual.

[00:06:06]Why your politics into one man because they have to get up.

[00:06:13]No one has one numbers when they win votes. But one CAME WITH IT.

[00:06:27]BECAUSE ALREADY THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY OUT WHILE WINNING.

[00:06:33]If you don't lose election 2028.

[00:06:41]It's in YOUR OWN INTEREST.

[00:06:50]I ASSURE THEM and bring you a war over protect.

[00:06:59]The old principle of law THAT SHOULD ALL MEN SIGN a man's hand in a jail his government be proven.

[00:07:08]Under his lordship Baffour Bonnie's leadership you are guilty before you are pronounced guilty.

[00:07:20]You are guilty before full trial.

[00:07:23]So my lord Baffour Bonnie and lawyer judge I am not doing almost two talking to you I I I will be chief justice.

[00:07:39]And I will be my lord.

[00:07:42]>> in Brazil, my lord.

[00:07:57]Supreme Court judges, Court of Appeal judges, High Court judges.

[00:08:04]I hear they are one.

[00:08:23]They went through similar ordeal. They never broke it.

[00:08:26]At every turn at every turn the scales HAVE TILTED NOT TOWARD THE PROTECTION of liberty but toward its curtailment.

[00:08:37]A court that allows itself to become a tool for silencing political opponents has ceased to be a guardian of liberty.

[00:08:47]It has become a participant in its destruction.

[00:08:51]I am aware of the climate in which our judiciary is operating.

[00:08:56]I am aware that this is a government that has shown it is capable of defiling our constitution to haul a sitting Chief Justice out of office.

[00:09:05]I am also aware that some members of the judiciary may be afraid.

[00:09:10]They look at what was done to Chief Justice Acquino and ask themselves whether standing up for the constitution is worth the personal cost.

[00:09:19]I can understand THAT FEAR.

[00:09:21]BUT THERE ARE SOME ALSO WHO ARE STILL WEARING PARTISAN COLORS AND ARE REFUSING TO LOOK AT the law and THEY ARE BENT ON TAKING BACKDOOR INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE EXECUTIVE TO do their bidding. THOSE MUST CHANGE THEIR ATTITUDE AND RESPECT the human rights of every Ghanaian irrespective of their party color.

[00:09:46]The people of Ghana look to the courts as a last line of defense when the executive overreaches.

[00:09:55]It's politically convenient to those in power.

[00:09:59]A judge who surrenders to fear and becomes a timorous soul too intimidated to defend the constitution and the rights it protects is no longer a judge.

[00:10:13]He has become an instrument of the powerful.

[00:10:16]A court THAT RESERVES ITS CONSTITUTIONAL COURAGE for safe and inconsequential cases and abandons it precisely when it matters most has dishonored the rule.

[00:10:29]I CALL UPON THE HIGH COURTS TO TAKE AGENT COGNIZANCE OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MR. Brogner's detention INCLUDING THE REPORTED ABSENCE OF A SIGNED AND CERTIFIED remand order and do the needful.

[00:10:47]Now, Ghana has been here before.

[00:10:50]The court knocks at your door with a proclamation.

[00:10:53]It arrives as likely like this incrementally and surgically.

[00:10:59]A COMMUNICATOR of a party is arrested.

[00:11:02]An organizer is picked up dead.

[00:11:05]A regional chairman is remanded into security into security remand.

[00:11:10]The message is spread quietly through every rank of the opposition.

[00:11:15]This is what dissent costs.

[00:11:18]The Muhammad administration has calculated that intimidating MPP communicators and silencing its regional leadership will allow it to govern without accountability and shield its mountain incompetence from scrutiny.

[00:11:33]That calculation is profoundly wrong and it will fail.

[00:11:38]It will not work.

[00:11:40]The MP will not be gagged.

[00:11:42]Not by arrest.

[00:11:44]Not by bail denial.

[00:11:46]Not by BNI detention. Not by any instrument of fear this government deploys.

[00:11:54]The freedom to speak, TO CRITICIZE POWER and to hold government accountable, is not a privilege granted by any administration.

[00:12:03]It is a constitutional birthright.

[00:12:06]And it cannot be revoked by any government on earth.

[00:12:10]Abronye's voice may be temporarily caged.

[00:12:14]Let the government understand clearly, thousand voices will rise in his place.

[00:12:22]>> [applause and cheering] >> Leader, and that is not a threat from the party, but rather IT IS AN UNBREAKABLE promise of Ghanaian democracy we are re-echoing.

[00:12:33]Now, our demands, our demands, and they are non-negotiable.

[00:12:39]FIRST, THE HONORABLE HOPESON ADORYE MUST BE RELEASED from BNI custody immediately.

[00:12:45]His detention is constitutionally indefensible and must end today.

[00:12:51]Second, our legal team will mount full constitutional challenge to this prosecution, including challenge to the application of two of sections 207 and 208 of Act 29 against political speech where civil liberties are available and adequate.

[00:13:12]Third, Parliament's constitutional, legal, and parliamentary affairs committee shall, upon assumption of Parliament, demand, through an application to summon the Inspector General of Police, the Director General OF BNI TO PUBLICLY ACCOUNT FOR EVERY DECISION taken in this matter.

[00:13:34]The Chief Justice is not also above the law.

[00:13:38]Parliament will use EVERY LAW UNDER ITS COMMAND to summon the Chief Justice.

[00:13:48]They must all be answerable.

[00:13:50]And let the MAJORITY OF OUR FIRE AND LET THE MAJORITY KNOW THIS.

[00:13:55]In the effort BY THE MINORITY IN ENSURING THIS IS DONE, they should not try to stampede it. It is good for DEMOCRACY AND WE CALL ON THE MAJORITY TO SUPPORT IT BECAUSE TOMORROW THEY MAY BE IN opposition and they may need this very law to protect them. I repeat, FOR OUR FRIENDS IN THE MAJORITY IN PARLIAMENT, I spirit I CALL FOR THEIR COOPERATION EVEN AS THE MINORITY IN SUMMONS THE CHIEF JUSTICE, THE IGP AND THE DIRECTOR GENERAL of BNI to appear before Parliament.

[00:14:31]They should support us. They should cooperate. It is a democratic responsibility. They shouldn't for partisan consideration decide to stampede us with their numbers. If they do, one day they will regret it.

[00:14:46]If they do, THEY MAY WIN WITH THEIR NUMBERS.

[00:14:48]SURE, BUT ONE DAY BY 2029 THEY WILL BE SHOUTING ON THE ROOFTOPS ASKING FOR THE LAW to protect them.

[00:15:01]And we'll tell them that when the time came, they condoned, they connived, and supported only We pray that day that day will not come.

[00:15:11]We need to end this vicious cycle in our political system.

[00:15:18]It is better for this country to sit together and work around the relevant issues that would ensure the growth of our democracy. And that is our demand on the NDC today.

[00:15:31]Independent media and legal the profession, they must add their voices now.

[00:15:36]The time to defend freedom is always before it is fully lost.

[00:15:41]Never after.

[00:15:43]AGAIN, WE CALL UPON OUR HIGH COURT to take urgent cognizance of our colleague's detention and the reported absence of a signed and certified remand order.

[00:15:54]The writ of habeas corpus exists for precisely this moment.

[00:15:59]THE JUDICIARY IS THE LAST line of defense between citizens and the unchecked power of the executive. We call upon THE JUDICIARY, IF INDEED IF INDEED IT IS THERE to uphold justice, to intervene and treat it as an isolated situation. Then we can respect them, then we can trust them and believe them that it is not supported by the system as a whole.

[00:16:26]AND AGAIN, THE CONDUCT OF THIS JUDGE AT CIRCUIT COURT 9 is now a pattern.

[00:16:31]They should call him to order and we should see a disciplinary action by the Chief Justice against this judge.

[00:16:41]Finally, ladies and gentlemen, let me say on behalf of the party that the people of GHANA MADE A SOLEMN covenant with themselves and with and with history.

[00:16:53]They said, "Never again shall the machinery of state be turned against citizens' right to speak.

[00:16:59]Never again shall political opinion be treated as criminal conduct.

[00:17:05]Never again shall the instrument of national security be weaponized to detain political opponents for the convenience of a certain government."

[00:17:16]And to those in this government, I repeat, who believe they can abuse power without consequence, I say this clearly and on record, the day of justice and accountability will come.

[00:17:30]It will come under this parliament or the next, but it will come.

[00:17:36]That is not a promise.

[00:17:38]That is a constitutional certainty.

[00:17:41]We built this democracy to last.

[00:17:45]We will defend it in the same courts where there seem to be some injustice, in parliament, where there is advocacy of the people, and in the full glare of public opinion like this platform, the party has chosen to speak with every constitutional weapon at our very disposal.

[00:18:04]The culture of silence is not coming back to Ghana, not now, not on our watch, not ever.

[00:18:12]Free Akrofi-Smart-Abrokwah now.

[00:18:15]Immediately, unconditionally, and restore his personal liberties. Thank you very much.