Minority blasts NDC

….Over Yendi, Gushiegu arrests

The minority in Parliament has condemned recent arrests by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Yendi and Gushiegu respectively in the Northern region describing it as politically motivated.

Briefing the media in Parliament, deputy Minority Leader Hon Ambrose Dery, accused government of displaying open discrimination in the arrest and detention of elders and traditional leaders particularly those of the Abudu Gate, contrary to the findings and recommendations of the defunct Wuaku Commission which provided names from Abudu and Andani Gates in its report.

According to him, the NDC government has not explained to Ghanaians why it has failed, per its party’s 2008 pre-election manifesto promise, to appoint a presidential commission of inquiry to delve into the events that occurred in Yendi between 25, 26 and 27 March 2002, for which Ya Na Yakubu Andani II and some elders lost their lives.

The NPP, he said, considered the arrest, detention and the on-going prosecution of ex-ministers of the Kufuor administration as an attempt by government to pursue a political agenda aimed at persecuting its political opponents, especially from the NPP side.

The legislator recalled that security operatives without search warrants on April 9, 2010 in the early hours of 1:00 a.m., and 4:00 a.m., ransacked homes, hounded and arrested 41 citizens of Yendi who were mainly Abudus and sent them to Bimbila for several hours of traumatic screening.

“NPP in principle has its political philosophy on the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights. We are not saying that people who break laws should walk free but concerns have to be raised over the open display of selective justice and the discriminatory nature of investigations on the matter,” Hon Dery said.

On Gushiegu, he said some known NPP supporters were arrested on 13th April, 2010 over a pre-election clash with NDC supporters in 2008, saying five of them have been brought to Accra to suffer similar fate as Abudus.

He, however, gave the assurance that the NPP will resist political prosecutions of its members by the NDC, and pledged to ensure that every citizen rightly or wrongly accused receives justice and fair trial in accordance with due process of law.