The NDC youth wing has expressed shock at the arrest of Appiah Stadium, the youth are demanding the immediate release of their colleague who was arrested yesterday by the Kumasi central police for calling the president a “wee smoker”.

According to the group, Nana Akufo-Addo who urged all Ghanaians to be citizens and not spectators in his inaugural speech should live by his words and order for Appiah’s release.

Below is full text:

The NDC Youth wing has learned with utter shock, the arrest and detention of one of our own, Appiah Stadium by the Ghana police for allegedly speaking his mind against his Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.

We are shocked not only because the police are breaking the laws with impunity, but because this unlawful arrest is on the orders of a President who has always claimed to be an apostle of free speech.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has also claimed in the past that he contributed immensely to the breaking of the culture of silence in Ghana, and yet, this is an obvious re-introduction of the culture of silence.

The President Nana Akufo-Addo must realize that freedom of speech is totally meaningless without freedom after speech. And the President and his NPP party cannot decide only to respect free speech when in opposition and turn around to conveniently bury it while in power.

We consider the unlawful arrest and detention of Appiah Stadium after his criticism of the President as an abuse of his fundamental right to free speech as a citizen of Ghana.

We demand that the President who asked Ghanaians at his inauguration to be active citizens and not spectators, walk his talk by immediately ordering the release of Appiah Stadium from unlawful police detention when his only ‘crime’ is trying to be an active citizen.

We the NDC Youth are aware of several NPP members who insulted President Rawlings, President Mahama and the late President Mills during the NDC regimes but were never arrested or detained because the NDC understood the true meaning and practice of free speech.

The arrest and detention of Appiah Stadium totally defies all that the President, his Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo claim to stand for.
We will be left with no other choice but to positively defy the authorities to secure the release of our comrade if the President fail to act immediately on our demand for his release.

Signed

Sidii Abubakar Musah
(NDC National Youth Organiser)