Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has described former Health Minister, Alex Segbefia as a man suffering from selective amnesia.
This comes after the former Minister, before the imposition of restrictions order, argued that the Government may be plunging the country back to the era of the ‘dark days’ where some human rights and freedoms of movement of Ghanaians were curtailed by Nkrumah’s Preventive Detention Act and the Protective Custody Decree of the National Liberation Council (NLC).
“Ladies and gentlemen, the powers President Akufo-Addo will assume under the bill are no different in substance from those that were granted by the Preventive Detention Act to our first President and the National Liberation Council under the Protective Custody Decree,’ Mr Segbefia had said in a statement last month.
But speaking on Peace FM on Wednesday, Mr Baako expressed surprise in the fact that Mr Segbefia would forget that his [Alex Segbefia] own party, led by the former President Jerry John Rawlings imposed the Protective Detention Decree under the PNDC for 11 years.
According to Mr Baako, there is no way the ‘dark days’ of Ghana’s history could be completely mentioned without adding the era of Flt lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, which shows the former health Minister may be suffering from selective memory loss.
“When the discussion on imposition of restrictions began, I found one thing quite interesting where in a video Alex Segbefia spoke about how that bill had the potential to throw Ghana back to what he described as the dark days, he spoke about the Preventive Detention Act by Kwame Nkrumah and the Protective Custody Decree of the NLC
“But you know what struck me? the Protective detention decree of the PNDC was completely missing and I was shocked that you are talking about dark days of our history and the person speaking is from the stock of the PNDC and significantly he forgot they imposed that thing for years, almost 11 years, but anyways, Selective amnesia is understandable,” he said.
Parliament on Thursday, March 19, approved the report of the Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee, recommending that the Imposition of Restriction Bill 2020 is passed under a certificate of urgency.
The passing of the bill, however, saw a stiff opposition from Minority members of Parliament who claimed that it will give unlimited power to President AKufo-Addo which could be used for personal gains.
The law gives the President the mandate to impose restrictions of movement and suspend public gatherings of any kind, including learning in educational institutions.
