Afenyo-Markin Urges Mahama to Pardon Jailed TikToker Camila Alhassan

Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has asked President John Dramani Mahama to pardon Camila Alhassan, a TikToker who is serving a one-year jail term for offensive conduct.

He made the request on Saturday, November 7, at the 30th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Media Awards in Accra, as first reported by Citi News.

According to the report, the Minority Leader said the 43-year-old's conviction and imprisonment raised concerns about relying on criminal punishment to deal with offences linked to speech. He urged the President to consider showing her clemency.

His appeal was part of a wider call at the event for Ghana to protect the constitutional right of citizens to air their views, criticise people in public office and take part in national debate without fear of being intimidated or jailed.

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An Accra Circuit Court sentenced Ms Alhassan on July 16, 2026, to one year in prison with hard labour. She had pleaded guilty to a charge of offensive conduct conducive to a breach of the peace.

The case arose from TikTok videos she posted between June 30 and July 5, 2026. In them, she made claims about President Mahama, including that he had sacrificed 32 cows to win the 2024 general elections.

She further claimed that sanitary pads handed out by the government to victims of the June 29, 2026, floods were meant to hide the alleged sacrifices.

Prosecutors told the court that her comments about the President and the First Lady, Lordina Mahama, were offensive and derogatory, and argued they could provoke a breach of the peace.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) later criticised her arrest and prosecution. It described the case as part of a troubling trend of what it called the "creeping criminalisation of speech".

According to the Foundation, she was first charged under Sections 207 and 208 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), covering offensive conduct and the publication of false news.

Her lawyer, Kwadwo Gyamfi-Bonsu, said she was convicted only on the offensive conduct charge under Section 207. He explained that the court did not have jurisdiction to rule on the false news charge.

The sentence has prompted public debate about how to weigh free expression against the duty of social media users not to post abusive, threatening or unproven material.

Speaking at the awards, Mr Afenyo-Markin argued that prosecution and jail terms should not be the main tools for responding to public criticism, false claims or offensive comments.

He called for Section 208 of the Criminal Offences Act and Section 76 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008 (Act 775), to be repealed. He said disputes over speech should, where suitable, be settled through civil remedies instead.

Such remedies, he said, could include retractions, public apologies and compensation, rather than criminal charges and imprisonment.