The General-Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Nii Armah Josiah-Aryeh has said that ex-President Jerry John Rawlings has not committed any crime to warrant suggestion that his rights and liberties be restrained.
He said, “Ghanaians including the former President live in a country governed by law and that the government should be able to pin-point what the ex-President has done wrong”. Dr Josiah-Aryeh was speaking to “The Evening News” about suggestions from certain quarters, especially the NPP Youth Wing that Mr Rawlings should be stripped of is entitlements if he did not behave like a statesman. He said “Rawlings has not done anything except that he is speaking his mind on a national issue”.
The General Secretary said Article 3 of the constitution upon which the ex-President’s invitation by security agencies for questioning was based was wrongly interpreted by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Akufo-Addo. He explained that the Article bordered on “acts by individuals alone or in concert with accomplices and not merely on free speech”. The General Secretary said it is baffling why freedom of expression exercised by the ex-President should be caught under the ambit of Article 3 of the constitution.
Dr Aryeh said it had been agreed by all sides in the political divide that ex-President Rawlings’ call was for positive change. He said “So I do not see why such a call can be stretched to mean the undertaking of activities to subvert the state”. According to him, the reaction of the country to the Kumasi outbursts of ex-President Rawlings had exposed the country to international ridicule when state security agencies engaged in “overkill and exaggeration”. He said “It is even more worrying when those who should be defending freedom of expression should be seen to have applied it discriminatory to ex-President Rawlings because of his background”.
He cautioned that those who fight against free speech would always lose. When asked to commend on rumours making the rounds that the ex-President was to be put under house arrest, the General Secretary remarked that” it is an irresponsible rumour”.
