The vice Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang is calling for equality in the application and the enforcement of laws in the country.
According to her if the law is not justly and fairly applied it becomes a breeding ground for corruption and other nefarious activities.
Speaking at a forum with management and staff of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) as part of her tour to engage civil society organizations on the NDC’s manifesto, Professor Opoku Agyemang urged the judiciary and the security agencies to at all times apply the law consistently.
“If you want to talk about name and shame, be consistent, if you are going to apply the law be consistent, if you are going to apply punishment, be consistent, if somebody has scandalized the law court, and you allow the process to go through, the person has apologized has done everything, the law took its course, the person was fined, sentenced and imprisoned make sure same applies to other offenders after him, ‘’ she stressed.
Professor Opoku Agyemang also alluded to some mass action she participated in and was criticized of which she has justified.
“Clemency is part of the judiciary system yet people pretend they don’t understand why there should be a remission. Another person does the same thing, also scandalizes the court and he has apologized so it’s okay? And I want to see that also highlighted. That is corruption, you are not allowing us to comply with the rules.”
Touching on how corruption will be dealt with under the next NDC government, Prof. Opoku Agyemang said “when we talk about Operation ‘’STING”, it is not coming from nowhere, in our previous government you saw our President prosecute his own. Has that continued?
On Corruption Perception Index (CPI), she urged the GII to be specific on the percentage of the country in a year under review saying ‘’please don’t generalize, lets us know, where we were at what time”, she quizzed.
“Let that be a kind of incentive for parties even to compete that in my time I was high but if you generalize that is all of us then we are all in this together so we can relax and that generalization I think is not helpful.”
At Center for Democratic Development (CDD) Professor Opoku Agyemang noted in as much as the NDC is committed to implementing the policies in its manifesto, it would not compromise on the value for money principle.
At Imani Africa, Professor Opoku Agyemang answered questions on how the NDC will ensure excellence in Ghana’s education sector. She hinted the focus will be on building the students up by supporting the teachers, putting methods in place for strict supervision and accountability.
“We are not going to do it by buying past questions, no, I take serious exceptions to that”.
In all, the NDC’s Running Mate visited five Civil Society Groups including Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP), the Socialist Forum of Ghana, Imani Africa, Center for Democratic Development (CDD) and the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII).
