Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has accused the government of using investigations into members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a strategy to intimidate and silence the opposition.
Speaking on Joy News’ The Probe on Sunday, the Effutu MP said some of his colleagues were being investigated over what he described as mere allegations, creating fear among MPs.
“The other challenge, really, is that, unfortunately, this government has made intimidation part of its strategy of silencing the minority,” he said.
According to Afenyo-Markin, some MPs are now reluctant to speak forcefully in Parliament because they fear being summoned by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).
He recounted an instance where an MP allegedly withdrew from making a statement in Parliament after learning that he had been asked to report to the BNI.
Afenyo-Markin said he had received similar complaints from MPs and had raised the issue with senior government officials.
While stressing that the NPP is not opposed to accountability, he cautioned against what he called the excessive use of investigations to intimidate political opponents.
“You can enforce the law with a human face without unnecessarily intimidating the person,” he said.
The Minority Leader further accused the government of using investigations into the opposition to divert public attention from its own governance challenges.
“So the strategy of this government is to tag NPP with corruption, silence the opposition by coming up with all manner of investigations in the name of accountability,” he said.
Afenyo-Markin warned that such an approach could fuel a cycle of political retaliation, insisting that governments should focus on addressing Ghana’s economic challenges rather than targeting their political opponents.
“I am not the person who supports this ‘you do me, I do you’ politics,” he said.
