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The circumstances that led to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to release the Montie Three cannot be equated to the forceful freeing of 13 youth standing trial for causing mayhem at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said.

According to him, the NDC government’s act was legal in the face of the law.

“Which part of the Montie 3 case that has not happened according to the rule of law? Is it covered by our constitution that people should be prosecuted when they verbally assault members of the judiciary? And the answer is yes. Were they prosecuted, the answer again is yes and convicted. Is it lawful for the president to exercise the prerogative of pardon in our constitution? And that answer is also yes. So everything that happened, in that case, proceeded according to the rule of law,” Asiedu Nketia said.

“If you believe in a cause and you argue for your course to be pursued in a democracy, that is different from mobilizing arms and training people to go and assault security agencies,” he added. Some members of a vigilante group affiliated to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Delta Force, stormed the Kumasi Circuit Court on Thursday and freed the members of their group who were facing charges for causing disturbances at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council.

The group vandalized some court property, and almost assaulted the Judge, Mary Senkyire. The judge had ruled that they be remanded to reappear before the court on the 20th of April, 2017 after charges of conspiracy to assault a public officer and causing unlawful damage. The incident has incensed many Ghanaians who have accused the government of doing nothing to stop the members of the group from carrying out such attacks.

The opposition National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) attempt to also criticize the NPP for the development has not gone down well with the NPP government who have said that the NDC has no moral right to criticize NPP over the Delta Force’s action after it also free three convicts who were serving jail term for threatening the lives of some Judges. But the General Secretary of the NDC believes the two incidences had entirely different elements, suggesting that the NDC’s action was lawful.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, he further accused the New Patriotic Party of doing nothing to address the violent attacks being carried out by groups affiliated with the party, indicating that the party had consistently demonstrated its disregard for the nation’s security especially in the run-up to the election.

He cited the NPP’s invitation of ex-South African security officers to train some of its members in security operations as a demonstration of the party’s intention of creating a parallel security force in the country in spite of the fact that it was against the constitution.