You Can’t Take Away My Right to Speak – Mahama to Dame

Former president, John Mahama has said Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame cannot stop him from speaking on critical national issues.

Dame on Monday (12 September) criticised the former president for his recent comment regarding the judiciary. 

He described Mahama’s comment as “an unwarranted attack on the integrity of Ghana’s judiciary.”

But Mahama said he has a duty as a former president to speak on national issues in order to give them the necessary attention.

In an interview with TV3 on Monday (12 September), he said he is unconcerned by attacks from people who are offended by his criticisms of the judiciary.

Mahama said, “The judiciary is the last arbiter. We can disagree, and we can have quarrels in Parliament eventually when we are unable to agree, we all go to the justice system and we must have confidence that it will do fairly and will do so according to the law and in the public interest that’s all I was saying.”

“So how he [Attorney General] can interpret that to mean that I was imprudent … So if you are a former president and you see something going on in the country you have no right to talk about it? Is that what he is saying?”

He added, “No, I won’t let him take that right away from me. If I see something going wrong, I will point it out. It is my duty to do so.”