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The Presidential candidate of the All People’s Congress (APC) Hassan Ayariga has stated that “no African leader will appear before the international criminal court” if he becomes President of Ghana.

According to him, ‘the Hague’, is skewed against Africans in their posture and treatment of cases brought before them.

Speaking to state broadcaster, GBC Tuesday, the former PNC flagbearer said Africans must unite to liberate themselves from the force of the ICC and western powers.

“When I become President, that Hague won’t work for any African leader. No African leader will appear before them, and I am serious about it.

“They treat us anyhow because we are not united, because we don’t use our sense,” he fumed.

Just today, Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for rape and pillage committed by his troops, becoming the highest-level official to be sentenced at the international criminal court.

Current high-profile ICC trials include that of Laurent Gbagbo, the former president of Ivory Coast, who denies charges that he orchestrated “unspeakable violence” in an attempt to hold on to power after losing an election in 2010, and that of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, who is accused of razing medieval shrines, tombs and a 15th-century mosque that formed part of the Unesco world heritage site in Timbuktu, Mali, when the city was seized by Islamic militants in 2012.

The International Criminal Court is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands. The ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

Over the years, the Court has received over 9000 complaints about alleged crimes from 139 countries; however, it has indicted 36 Africans in eight countries.

On October 1, 2013 the African Union (AU) threatened to withdraw after the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy, William Ruto were indicted by the Court for the riots that flared up after disputed elections at the end of 2007 which left hundreds dead. The Kenyan parliament voted in favor of withdrawing from the ICC.