In the Akufo-Addo administration, thugs of the governing NPP attacked the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council and forced the Regional Security Coordinator out of office. They vandalised his office and destroyed public property in the process.
When 13 of them were arrested and put before the court after much pressure from citizens and civil society, some of the remaining thugs attacked the court and freed the 13 men standing trial. Media reports said the judge was whisked to safety when it appeared they wanted to attack her. Eight of the attackers were arrested after national outrage.
The 13 members of the vigilante group who were standing trial and escaped turned themselves in later and were tried swiftly and fined a paltry penalty of GHS 2,400 each.
The 8 members of the vigilante group who were arrested for attacking the court and freeing the 13 were set free for "lack of evidence" to prosecute them.
Now, compare the leniency given to the NPP vigilante group with the high-handed treatment the Democracy Hub protestors are receiving from the state and tell me if the justice system in Ghana is fair.
Or is the state saying attacking the president's appointee and forcing him out of office and subsequently attacking the court and freeing persons standing trial are not as severe as people protesting and blocking a road or removing a key from a police towing truck?
Vormawor has said the police assaulted him. The police are saying the minor injuries he sustained were because he resisted a transfer to a different cell. They claimed they transferred him because he was planning to "compromise the security of the other inmates" of the cell. You can choose whose version to believe, but the state's high-handedness is not in doubt.
If you support the current high-handed treatment because those involved are Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor and Democracy Hub, tomorrow you may be repeating the words of the Nazi-era pastor, Martin Niemรถller:
First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak outโbecause I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak outโbecause I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak outโbecause I was not a Jew.
Then they came for meโand there was no one left to speak for me.