Should your members be tried in shrines now? - NPP reacts to NDC's petition to Commonwealth

NDC petitions Commonwealth Secretariat over persecution of its members

NDC accuses Akufo-Addo of being a democratic despot

NDC asks Commonwealth Secretariat to follow political and human rights situation in Ghana

Head of Legal team for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Frank Davies, has questioned the basis on which the National Democratic Congress has sent a petition to the Commonwealth Secretariat.

The opposition party on February 28, sent a petition to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat lamenting what they described as, "human right violations, harassment and political prosecutions against members and supporters of the NDC.”

Citing a number of prosecutions against its members, the party lamented how the judiciary has become tainted with attendant loss of public confidence in these institutions.

However, speaking on Accra–based Joy FM, Mr. Davies [Esq.] said the concerns raised by the NDC were illegitimate.

He also contended that the NPP and government was not politically witch-hunting members of the opposition but rather the law was taking it course.

Mr. Davies further wondered if the NDC wanted its members to stand trial in shrines rather the law courts.

“Illegitimate. I honestly cannot find any reason, basis for what the NDC is intent on doing. This knee-jerk reaction should cease. Is the NDC trying to tell Ghanaians that their supporters or officers are above the law? Is that what we are being told.

"In the first place, who defines what is criminal prosecution? If you are charged with an offense…in Ghana, the threshold is even better. You don’t need to prove your innocence. It is the state which proves your guilt and the guilt is beyond a reasonable doubt.

"The slightest doubt inures to the benefit of the accused person. If charges have been proffered in court and the prosecution is being rolled, I wonder how anyone can complain of harassment and persecution.

"If you have fallen foul of the law, should you be taken to a fetish groove or a shrine or a cave in some forest? You obviously will have to go to court and answer your charges," he said on news programme, Top Story.