The Minority Caucus in Parliament has called for legislation to repeal Sections 207 and 208 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act in order to deal with the abuse of its usage by the security agencies.
They argued that the provisions, which criminalise offensive conduct and the publication of false information that incites public alarm, undermined the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression.
The call follows the arrest and prosecution of a 43-year-old social media influencer, Ms Camila Alhassan, who was on Thursday sentenced to one year’s imprisonment with hard labour over comments about President John Dramani Mahama in a series of TikTok videos.
In the videos, Alhassan alleged, without providing evidence, that President Mahama sacrificed 32 cows as part of a ritual to help him win the 2024 general election.
The widely shared videos led to her arrest earlier this month. She later pleaded guilty to offensive conduct and publication of false news before an Accra Circuit Court.
Addressing a press conference in Parliament on Friday, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin clarified that the call to repeal Sections 207 and 208 was not a licence for irresponsible speech.
“We condemn irresponsible speech and irresponsible publication in all its forms, whoever is responsible for it, and regardless of which party that person supports,” Mr Afenyo-Markin said.
He explained that although the Minority did not support irresponsible speech or publication, it opposed custodial sentences for such offences.
Mr Afenyo-Markin noted that Sections 74 and 75 of the same Act already criminalise unlawful threats, stressing that “nothing we are proposing today touches those provisions.”
He also said the repeal of Ghana’s criminal and seditious libel laws in 2001 under former President John Agyekum Kufuor remained one of the New Patriotic Party’s proudest achievements.
The Minority Leader condemned Alhassan’s arrest and imprisonment, describing it as a “recreation of criminal libel” by the government.
“When a person can be arrested, remanded and marched before a Circuit Court for a video, a Facebook post or a petition to the President, merely because the content is thought to be insulting, offensive or embarrassing to those in power, the State has recreated criminal libel in every respect that matters,” he said.
Mr Afenyo-Markin called for the immediate withdrawal of all pending prosecutions under Sections 207 and 208, including a second case pending against Ms Alhassan, and the release of persons currently serving prison sentences under the provisions.
He also demanded a public commitment from the government that no citizen would face criminal prosecution for speech that was “merely critical, embarrassing or unwelcome to those in power.”
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
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