Newly elected NPP National Youth Organiser Abanga Fuseini Yakubu has proposed a $500 million bail bond for NDC-linked offenders if the NPP returns to power. Speaking on JoyNews' PM Express programme on Tuesday, October 6, Abanga outlined his vision for treating political opponents. He framed the proposal as a response to the current administration's treatment of government critics. Abanga accused the Mahama government of criminalising free speech.
Abanga accused the Mahama government of deploying state institutions, including the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), to intimidate young people and critics over social media posts. He argued that ordinary comments online were now enough to trigger state action. Abanga claimed that under the Akufo-Addo era, critics were able to insult and attack the former president without facing arrest.
EOCO is Ghana's Economic and Organised Crime Office, mandated to investigate and prosecute serious financial and economic crimes. The comments arrive against a backdrop of ongoing disputes over arrests and prosecutions of individuals accused of making allegedly offensive or unlawful statements online.
Abanga used the same interview to lay out an electoral target: reclaiming 70 parliamentary seats he called "orphan seats" — constituencies the NPP once held but lost to the NDC, most recently in the 2024 general election. He said achieving this would require sustained grassroots engagement and strategic mobilisation.
The push comes as the NPP continues to reckon with the fallout from its 2024 defeat. The party has faced internal turbulence since then, including an NPP MP's admission that the party 'got it wrong' in electing a convict as vice chairman.
For ordinary Ghanaians, Abanga's comments signal how combative the lead-up to the 2028 election could become, with both the ruling NDC and opposition NPP trading accusations over free expression and state power. A proposed $500 million bail bond would represent an extraordinarily high threshold compared with bail amounts typically set in Ghanaian courts.
No response from the NDC or the Mahama government to these specific accusations is included in the reporting reviewed. It remains unclear what concrete steps, if any, the NPP's youth wing will take next to pursue either goal. The sources do not indicate any immediate timeline for either the bail bond proposal or the 70-seat campaign beyond Abanga's stated 2028 ambition.
Key points
- The NPP Youth Organiser proposes a $500 million bail bond for NDC-linked offenders if the NPP returns to power.
- Abanga accuses the Mahama government of criminalising free speech.
- The NPP aims to reclaim 70 parliamentary seats lost to the NDC in the 2024 general election.
