Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has said the Mahama government has arrested more people over speech-related offences in its first year and a half in office than the previous Akufo-Addo administration did in eight years, and warned President John Dramani Mahama that the pattern could cost his government public goodwill.
Speaking on TV3’s Key Points on August 8, Kpebu said the comparison, based on his own assessment rather than an independently verified count, reflected what he called a troubling shift in how the government responds to criticism. “For one and a half years, this current government has arrested more people on matters of free speech than Akufo-Addo’s eight years. It is a bad record for John Mahama; they should be careful. Mahama should pay attention,” he said. Reports have documented at least 14 arrests linked to false-news allegations in Ghana over a roughly 16-month span under the current administration, according to an Al Jazeera analysis published in June, though the figure covers a narrower category than the broader free-speech arrests Kpebu referenced.
Kpebu argued that past Ghanaian leaders, including the late former President Jerry John Rawlings, tolerated harsh public criticism without resorting to arrests, and pointed to Mahama’s own past description of Akufo-Addo and his allies as “Akyem sakawa mafia” as an example of pointed political language that went unpunished. “We said Akufo-Addo was stone-deaf; did he arrest me? Nana Yaa Jantuah called Akufo-Addo Nebuchadnezzar; she popularised it. Allow Ghanaians to talk,” he said, adding that Rawlings once called former President John Agyekum Kufuor a thief without facing arrest. Kpebu proposed fines or public naming and shaming as alternatives to arrest for people who make offensive comments about officials, while acknowledging that insulting public officials is not appropriate conduct.
His comments echoed concerns raised by Majority Chief Whip and South Dayi MP Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, who appeared on the same programme and said repeated arrests over political commentary risk feeding opposition claims that the government is suppressing dissent. Dafeamekpor said such arrests are often carried out by police without direct government sanction but still damage the administration’s image. “I am upset by some of these arrests; it hurts the government. Sometimes government doesn’t even sanction them; it’s the police,” he said, calling for the government to focus on delivering its mandate instead.
The remarks followed the New Patriotic Party’s “Democracy Under Attack” demonstration on August 6, which the party said was organized to defend constitutional governance and challenge what it describes as political persecution and abuse of state institutions under the current government.
