North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has responded to recent news that he has been cited for contempt of court after he kicked court documents in a viral video that started citrculating last week.
The lawmaker had been dragged to the court by Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, alias Victor Kusi Boateng, whose court documents were kicked by Ablakwa after he sought a restraining order against the MP over recent pronouncements.
Ablakwa said he has received solidarity and encouragement from a number of people and groups in the wake of his recent exposés with respect to the National Cathedral project.
"A country where parliamentarians carrying out their constitutional oversight mandate become victims of state sponsored harassment, strange court injunctions and judicial threats of imprisonment even as double identity charlatans are protected and pampered is definitely a nation in the dark abyss.
"Let the cowardly forces of tyranny be told that I am not one to be frightened with imprisonment," he added in a social media post dated February 9, 2023.
He stressed that he was "ready to be a political prisoner of conscience than to be coerced and compromised into a behind the scenes deal with the corrosive enemies of the Republic."
He went on to cite a number of former prisoners of conscience including Jerry John Rawlings and Nelson Mandela who he said "have all taught us to overcome the fear of prison and be constantly of the indomitable belief that Truth and Justice cannot be imprisoned."
I wish to express heartfelt appreciation and profound gratitude for the overwhelming solidarity and words of encouragement I have received since the series of cathedral exposés in the pursuit of my constitutional mandate of oversight, and in the face of the current fascist machinations to use the judiciary and other state institutions to silence and intimidate me.
I am eternally indebted to the good people of Ghana, my dearest family, former President H.E. John Mahama, the NDC executive led by Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the NDC Council of Elders chaired by Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, my beloved North Tongu constituents, the rank and file of NDC comrades across the country, Civil Society Organisations, activists, genuine pastors, the credible media, my dedicated staff, gallant and dependable colleagues of the NDC Caucus in Parliament led by Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson.
A country where parliamentarians carrying out their constitutional oversight mandate become victims of state sponsored harassment, strange court injunctions and judicial threats of imprisonment even as double identity charlatans are protected and pampered is definitely a nation in the dark abyss.
Let the cowardly forces of tyranny be told that I am not one to be frightened with imprisonment.
I am ever ready to be a political prisoner of conscience than to be coerced and compromised into a behind the scenes deal with the corrosive enemies of the Republic.
Nkrumah, Rawlings, Mandela, Kenyatta, Sisulu, Motlanthe, Desmond Tutu, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jnr., Thomas Mapfumo, Andrei Sakharov, Antonia Gramsci and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have all taught us to overcome the fear of prison and be constantly of the indomitable belief that Truth and Justice cannot be imprisoned.
Silence and Surrender cannot be options!
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