Legal practitioner and journalist Samson Lardi Anyenini has defended former Vice President and New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer Dr Mahamudu Bawumia's call to discontinue the prosecution of an NDC organiser, arguing that the late President John Evans Atta Mills took a similar position when faced with offensive remarks directed at him.

His comments come after some National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters criticised Dr Bawumia's intervention following the arrest of an NDC organiser in Agona West over alleged false publication and offensive comments about him.

The debate has intensified after TikToker Camilla Alhassan was sentenced to one year in prison for offensive conduct and the publication of false news targeting President John Mahama with some suggesting the prosecution of the NDC organiser demonstrated that the law was being applied equally.

Mr Anyenini, however, rejected that narrative.

He quoted Dr Bawumia for stating emphatically that he neither lodged a complaint nor authorised the prosecution.

"Dr Bawumia made it clear that he never lodged a complaint or sanctioned any prosecution, reaffirming his conviction that the answer to offensive speech is better speech, and the answer to falsehood is truth, not handcuffs, courtrooms and crushing bail conditions," he said.

Further buttressing his argument, Mr Anyenini recalled an incident in 2011 involving the late John Kumah who was arrested after making offensive comments about the late President John Evans Atta Mills.

According to Mr Anyenini, President Mills personally instructed the police to release him because he did not wish to pursue the matter.

"President Mills himself directly instructed the police to release him because he was not interested in pursuing the case. If President Mills could intervene to prevent the criminalisation of speech directed at him, Dr Bawumia is entirely entitled to disavow prosecutions done purportedly in his name," he said.

Mr Anyenini suggested that the recent prosecution of the NDC organiser appeared to be an attempt for equalisation.

He noted it appeared to create the impression that law enforcement was treating supporters of both major political parties equally.

"Of course, he's a politician, he can see what's going on. This is being done to attempt an equalisation so that it can be said that it's not only people who are maligning and insulting the First Family and NDC politicians who are being arrested and prosecuted and put in jail but even in the NPP, those who insult the flagbearer are also facing the same things," he said.

He maintained that while offensive speech should be condemned, criminal prosecution is not the appropriate response.