By Issah Olegor
The decision by an Accra Circuit Court to remand outspoken Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC, has provoked sharp criticism from within the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Government Spokesperson Hamza Suhuyini described the ruling as “a poor decision” that undermines both logic and legal principles.
Background
On Friday, September 12, 2025, presiding judge Samuel Bright Acquah ruled that Abronye should be kept in custody for a further week. He has since been granted bail by another court.
This was despite the fact that the charges against him—offensive conduct conducive to the breach of public peace and publication of false news—are classified as misdemeanours.
The judge justified his decision by citing national security concerns because the comments in question were directed at the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).
In his ruling, Judge Acquah controversially invoked George Orwell’s Animal Farm to argue that while all men are equal in theory, some were “more equal than others.”
This reasoning has triggered outrage across the political spectrum, with both opposition and government voices questioning the judgment.
Suhuyini: “Defies Every Logic And legal Principle”
Speaking at a Political Marketing Strategy Engagement at the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC), Suhuyini did not mince words.
“The decision of the trial court judge, especially in the Abronye case, defies every logic and every legal principle that I have come into contact with as a young lawyer. That point must be made,” he declared.
He admitted that the ruling left him personally unsettled: “That decision, when I read it last night, I was embarrassed by that decision, especially as a government spokesperson. I simply didn’t know—it didn’t just sit well with me. I tried to look for justification behind such a decision, but I simply couldn’t.”
On Separation of Powers
Hamza Suhuyini, however, was careful to defend the government against claims of judicial interference. He told the students:
“Many of you in your social studies class, you know the difference when it comes to separation of powers and the different arms of government. The judiciary is on its own. The executive is on its own. The legislature is on its own. And this government promised a reset.”
“It may be difficult for many of you to agree that we are not interfering when it comes to the functions of the judiciary. But I can tell you with all sincerity and certainty, based on what I see, that we are doing everything within our power not to interfere when it comes to the functions of the judiciary and how they go about their judgments.”
“And so this judgment that was released on Friday is nothing but a poor decision emanating from one of us,” he stressed.
Blaming Past Regimes
The government spokesperson also linked the current controversy to what he described as political interference under the previous administration.
“We are having to deal with the effects of the bad political interventions of the last regime. In eight months, we may not be able to cure all that, but we are doing our best. And this judgment is one of the effects of the last eight years,” Suhuyini argued.
“A Self-Serving Agenda”
Pointing to past cases, Suhuyini recalled: “If you read the judgment, the same judge alluded to the fact that in 2023, he remanded an NDC activist for insulting Nana Addo as president of the Republic of Ghana. That same judge. And many of us in the NDC then condemned him for that action. It is the same judge who remanded the would-be presenter. I’m sure you guys have read it.”
According to him, the judge’s pattern suggested self-interest rather than legal reasoning.
“So in his mind, what he did and he was held under the Nana Akufo-Addo government, he can be forgiven to think that this government—this government will also tell him. So when I read the judgment, I saw it more as a self-serving agenda to force down a consistent similarity down our throats to defend,” Suhuyini said.
He added: “And that is not why the NDC won power. The NDC did not win power to continue the perpetuation of illegality as far as our law courts are concerned.”
