New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Youth Organiser, Salam Mustapha, has expressed his disgust and distaste at the government over the arrest and detainment of Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Kwame Baffoe, widely known as Abronye DC.
The Ghana Police, in an official statement shared on their Twitter page, confirmed the NPP member’s arrest on Monday, September 8. “The Ghana Police Service has today, 08/09/25, arrested Mr. Kwame Baffoe @ Abronye for offensive conduct conducive to the breach of the peace,” the statement read, confirming he is in their custody awaiting arraignment before the Court.
He is scheduled to make his second court appearance on Friday, September 12, after his first court appearance on Tuesday, September 9.
During the court proceedings, the NPP Bono Chairman’s legal team requested bail after the presiding judge scheduled his next appearance within the next three days. However, the Accra Circuit Court judge denied the request, and Abronye is to remain in police custody until his next appearance.
The denial of bail visibly upset some NPP members, who appeared in court in solidarity with their party chairman.
He arrived in handcuffs, escorted by police officers in a black police van known as “Black Maria,” sparking concern among members of the opposition NPP, including the party’s National Youth Organiser, Salam Mustapha.
During a media engagement yesterday, after the court session, he was seen outside EOCO’s premises, openly criticising the government, stressing that power changes hands and predicting the opposition would retaliate when in office.
He warned of an imminent demonstration against the entire police force led by the Inspector General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno, accusing them of being biased and partisan in their treatment of Abronye.
“This is an affront to the democracy we are all building. And so, if this government does not stop harassing members of the NPP, I’m telling you, today, we are going to demonstrate against the police. (sic) I, the National Youth Organiser, am going to lead it.,” he announced.
Mustapha criticised how Abronye’s case of misdemeanour was being treated like a criminal case rather than a civil matter. He stated that Abronye “wasn’t a criminal to be transported in handcuffs and in a Black Maria,” calling it a waste of taxpayers’ money and the time of concerned individuals.
. He further warned the government against what he described as the mistreatment of NPP party members, stating, “Power has an end, the tables will turn, and we will all have our revenge.”
Meanwhile, Daniel Martey Addo, the lawyer representing Abronye and Managing Counsel at Nkrumah & Associates, commended the adherence to legal procedures during his client’s arraignment. He, however, questioned the prosecution’s intentions, stating, “It appears that the prosecution would just want him to be remanded. For whatever reason, you gave us an invite and the charges levelled against my client were just misdemeanours. In law, you would know that there are categories of offences, and a misdemeanor is the basic one that should not be the reason an accused person is remanded.”
According to reports, armed police stormed former NPP Youth Organiser Moses Abor’s house in search of Abronye on Sunday, September 8.
Last week, Abronye made headlines after formally writing to eight different countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, the United States, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Germany, seeking protection for his safety in Ghana. Defending his action, he cited “consistent, escalating political persecution, threats to my life, and systemic abuse of state security powers by the current Government of Ghana.”
In early July, Abronye was in the news for engaging in a legal dispute with law enforcement agencies, including the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), and the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine. He challenged these institutions in court over what he described as unlawful breaches of the 48-hour detention limit for suspects, claiming they had not met their bail conditions.
He urged the Supreme Court to declare that the continued detention of suspects by EOCO and NIB beyond 48 hours, solely because they have not met bail conditions, constitutes a violation of Article 14(3) of the Constitution and is therefore unconstitutional. Abronye has asked the apex court to provide a proper interpretation of Article 14(3), which states: “A person who is arrested, restricted or detained for the purpose of bringing him before a court in execution of an order of a court; or upon reasonable suspicion of his having committed or being about to commit a criminal offence under the laws of Ghana, and who is not released, shall be brought before a court within forty-eight hours after the arrest, restriction or detention.”
He argues that EOCO and NIB lack constitutional authority to detain anyone beyond 48 hours without judicial authorisation, regardless of whether bail has been granted but not executed, and wants the court to declare so. Abronye also seeks clarification on cases where EOCO and NIB impose excessive or punitive bail conditions, which he claims deprive suspects of actual release. According to him, this “constitutes a constructive denial of bail” and “undermines the purpose and spirit of Article 14, especially clause 3.”
The plaintiff is urging the court to issue an order directing EOCO and NIB to take all necessary and lawful steps to ensure that all persons arrested and granted bail, but unable to fulfil the bail conditions imposed, are either released or brought before a court of competent jurisdiction within 48 hours of their arrest or detention. The defendants have fourteen days after service of the statement of the plaintiff’s case to file their own statement of defence. Abronye’s legal action follows the detention and bail terms of some members of the previous government.
Meanwhile, Abronye’s arrest comes days after EOCO held the presidential candidate and leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Kofi Akpaloo, in custody for alleged financial misappropriation and other related misconduct. On Wednesday, September 3, Akpaloo was picked up at his Kumasi residence by EOCO officials for interrogation. He had contested the presidency in the 2024 general elections, where he obtained 5,219 votes, representing 0.09%. EOCO has recently focused on investigating high-profile political figures and business leaders.
EOCO was established by the Economic and Organised Crime Office Act, 2010 (Act 804), as a specialised agency to monitor and investigate economic and organised crime. On the authority of the Attorney-General, it prosecutes these offences to recover proceeds of crime and provide for related matters. The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has a similar mandate. Recently, the OSP released a fifty-page report covering investigations and prosecutions carried out between January 1 and July 31 this year.
The OSP’s Seventh Half-Yearly Report, pursuant to Section 3(3) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959), outlines key developments in the Office’s operations. According to the report, despite resistance from powerful interests, the OSP remained focused on executing its mandate. The Office successfully advanced significant corruption-related investigations to the stage of court proceedings while also initiating new inquiries into suspected acts of corruption.
“Then again, the Office, as one of three implementing partners of the new National Ethics and Anti-Corruption Strategy and Implementing Plan, is fashioning and moulding anti-corruption structures that would stand the test of time. The task ahead remains formidable. Much more so is our resolve to perform. This reporting period was characterised by the intensification of the Office’s prosecutorial mandate.
“We advanced high-profile investigations to court and initiated bold inquiries into suspected corruption, often in the face of deep-seated resistance from entrenched interests. Notwithstanding these expected challenges, the Office remains resolute and guided by the rule of law, fairness, firmness, evidence-based action, and the interest of the public. We recognise that the fight against corruption cannot be waged and won only through punitive action and incarceration,” parts of the report read.
The legislative framework of the OSP mandates the authority to combat corruption, recover assets, and confiscate illicit property. “Indeed, the legislative set-up of the Office leans heavily on corruption prevention and asset recovery and disgorgement of tainted property. Consequently, we proceed on sustainable anti-corruption outcomes by pairing enforcement with robust prevention and asset recovery, especially founded on our unique plea bargaining regime. In this spirit, the Office scaled up its preventive mandate through active engagement with public institutions, private sector actors, and civil society, and secured convictions and asset recovery through impactful plea bargaining. We also reckon that the nation’s anti-corruption legal framework requires re-imagination, modernisation, and retooling to address the immense scale and complexity of modern corruption in the context of our social, economic, and political constructs.
On this score, the Office has proposed the inclusion of a new chapter in the Constitution dedicated to the fight against corruption through definitive constitutional expression by the institution of proposed concrete measures to effectively and comprehensively suppress and repress corruption in public life as well as in the private sector, chief among which include lifestyle audit, non-conviction-based asset recovery, enhanced asset declaration and verification regime, and reverse onus presumption of corruption as the foundation of both anti-corruption criminal proceedings and civil asset recovery proceedings,” parts of the report added.
The Office is also leading the effort for the passage of a comprehensive Corrupt Practices Act and Conduct of Public Officers Act. Currently, sixty-seven cases are being handled by the Office, all of which are undergoing comprehensive review.
