The Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, has criticised the arrest and detention of Bono Regional Chairman Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC, describing it as a misuse of state power for political purposes.

Abronye was arrested by the Ghana Police Service on Monday, September 8, and remanded by an Accra Circuit Court for one week to allow further investigations. He has been charged with publishing false news and offensive conduct likely to disturb the peace, following comments he allegedly made on television accusing the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of attending National Democratic Congress (NDC) meetings and branding the current IGP, Tetteh Yohuno, as “the most corrupt” in Ghana’s history.

He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to reappear in court on Friday, September 19, 2025.

Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, September 13, Ahiagbah questioned President John Dramani Mahama’s silence, arguing that the arrest highlights how state power is being abused under his leadership.

“The idea that His Excellency John Dramani Mahama will acquiesce to the abuse that we are seeing in our country the emasculation of our constitutional rights as a people and the use of state power to show people where power lies I think that we need to get serious,” he said.

He stressed that the state belongs to the people and not to any one leader, urging the President to act in the interest of all citizens.

“This state is our country. We have selected one of us His Excellency John Dramani Mahama. He didn’t possess this country for himself. It is for us. We are the people, and he is to exercise the constitution on our behalf. He is seeing it being abused,” he added.

Ahiagbah described the arrest as a “classic show of power,” accusing the government of weaponising security agencies to intimidate citizens.

“What is happening to Abronye is a classic show of power that weaponising state security or the power to arrest to show a citizen where power lies… We need to tell the president clearly that this state does not belong to him,” Ahiagbah concluded.