A joint team of armed soldiers and policemen were deployed to the headquarters of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to help control a swelling crowd on New Patriotic Party (NPP) members who had gone there after reports that the Party’s Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Bosiako alias Chairman Wontumi had been arrested and detained there.
Chairman Wontumi was arrested by EOCO officials leaving the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Accra.
Wontumi was at the CID headquarters to continue to assist in investigations into charges of illegal mining levelled against him. He had been invited by the CID a day earlier but released on bail.
As at the time of going to bed Tuesday night, the exact reason for the re-arrest by EOCO was unknown and the Office was yet to issue a statement on the arrest.
Hundreds of NPP faithful besieged the streets in front of the EOCO headquarters in protest of the arrest and demanding his release even late into the night.
According to the NPP’s General Secretary Justin Frimpong Kodua, the Chairman Wontumi had complied with an invitation by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to report at 3pm on Tuesday, only to be intercepted by armed operatives in four pick-up vehicles shortly after leaving the CID headquarters.
“He was taken into custody without prior notice. For some time, we didn’t even know where he had been taken until it was later confirmed he was at EOCO,” Kodua told journalists outside the EOCO office in Accra.
Kodua however questioned the manner of the arrest, warning against tactics that could stoke political tensions.
“We must avoid unnecessary provocations. The democracy we’re building must be protected,” he said.
The standoff has sparked political tensions, with senior NPP figures warning against what they describe as intimidation tactics.
Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Tuesday, NPP National Organiser Henry Nana Boakye expressed the party’s outrage over the incident, vowing that the NPP would not sit by while its members face what it considers unfair treatment under the guise of investigations.
“We will resist any form of political harassment. We have already indicated our willingness to cooperate with any investigative body. We are a law-abiding political party, and we have already told our members to cooperate with any investigative body,” he said.
