Former UN Senior Governance Advisor, Prof. Baffour Agyemang-Duah, has called on Ghana’s political parties to stop portraying criminal investigations involving their members as partisan attacks.
He said politicians accused of corruption, theft or misuse of state resources must be subjected to the same laws and legal processes as every other citizen.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Thursday, August 6, amid growing debate over the arrest and prosecution of persons affiliated with the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Prof. Agyemang-Duah said credible allegations of wrongdoing should be handled through established legal procedures rather than political rhetoric.
“If there’s a real case of corruption or stealing of state resources, and there’s evidence for that, the proper thing is to secure the arrest, follow the necessary protocols, allow the person to be tried and let judgment be given,” he said.
‘An attack on one is seen as an attack on all’
Prof. Agyemang-Duah criticised what he described as a long-standing practice by both the NPP and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of rallying behind party members facing criminal allegations.
He argued that such interventions risk creating the perception that politicians deserve special treatment because of their political affiliations.
“I get disturbed because it seems to me that for the politicians, any attack on one member is an attack on all,” he said.
“This idea of jumping to the defence of a member who has been caught by the law, which is done by the two parties over the years, is really clouding how we deal with criminals.”
According to the governance expert, political parties should distinguish between legitimate concerns about the justice system and attempts to shield individuals from accountability.
He acknowledged that issues such as selective justice, perceived judicial bias, freedom of expression and excessive bail conditions warrant public scrutiny. However, he maintained that such concerns should not be used to frustrate criminal investigations where there is credible evidence of wrongdoing.
‘Politicians do no evil’ perception
Prof. Agyemang-Duah said the tendency to frame every criminal prosecution involving a politician as a political contest risks undermining public confidence in Ghana’s accountability institutions.
He noted that accusations of selective justice and judicial bias have been raised under successive governments whenever prominent political figures have faced prosecution.
He therefore urged political actors to focus on the facts of individual cases rather than automatically interpreting legal proceedings through a partisan lens.
“We are now somehow creating the impression that politicians do no evil, which is not true,” he said.
Prof. Agyemang-Duah called on political parties to allow law enforcement agencies and the courts to perform their constitutional responsibilities without partisan interference.
He stressed that respect for due process, equal application of the law and institutional independence are essential to strengthening Ghana’s democratic governance and accountability.
