Mustapha Gbande, the NDC Deputy General Secretary, has shockingly denied that his earlier remarks were in which he claimed he ordered the arrest of Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah.
It will be recalled that Mustapha Gbande had earlier revealed that he instructed the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to arrest Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah.
According to Mustapha Gbande, he met with the EOCO boss and instructed him to arrest the Manhyia South MP.
Speaking on JoyNews, Mustapha Gbande stated, “The recent one, the Awuah one. I met the EOCO boss. I told him to arrest the guy. Let the whole world come to an end; arrest him.
“But what did Awuah do? He says that because he’s defending Salomey, that is why EOCO has targeted him. He goes further to instigate our brothers who were around to obstruct the work of a public officer. The girl was nearly knocked down by the police,” Gbande explained.
“Atta Akyea was invited by EOCO; have you heard of it? NAPO is attending to an investigation at EOCO. Have you heard of it? If you are invited… to come and assist with investigations, it is not about the government or what you have done or like to have done,” he indicated.
“You go there, and then you deal with the issues, and you go back. That is why we have two political parties. Even if you are afraid, there are overtures that you can make to other people so that they try to water down some tension before you appear. This is not new to the political traditions,” he added.
However, speaking in an interview on Asempa FM, Mustapha Gbande stated, “I did not say that I ordered the arrest of the Manhyia South MP. I said he should do well to arrest him”.
He criticised Awuah for challenging EOCO to arrest him, describing such conduct as inappropriate.
“How did we get to a point where a citizen can tell an enforcement agency, ‘I dare you to come and arrest me’?” he asked.
Gbande said Awuah should have appeared before EOCO despite his concerns about the manner in which the agency initially attempted to arrest him.
“However wrong the mode of arrest was, the lawyer owed it to himself the duty to apply superior emotional intelligence. As an MP, if you are invited, go there,” he said.
He added that the confrontation with the EOCO official was unfortunate but said Awuah should have gone to the agency afterwards.
“The spectacle with the EOCO official was unfortunate, but after that I expected him to go to EOCO. Why would you wait until an order is procured for your arrest?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, the newly elected Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has questioned NDC Deputy General Secretary Mustapha Gbande over his claims of ordering EOCO to arrest Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah.
According to Miracles Aboagye, it is unfortunate for a political operative to direct a law enforcement agency to arrest a sitting Member of Parliament.
He further questioned the basis for Gbande’s directive, stressing that his position as a political party official does not give him the authority to direct EOCO on who to arrest.
Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Monday, October 5, Miracles Aboagye stated, “It’s unfortunate… I saw his clip from the AM show, and I was just shaking my head. And I’m sure a lot of people are watching, both locally and in the international community. People are asking themselves, what kind of democracy is Ghana running?”
“If we have a situation where it takes Mustapha Gbande to direct the EOCO on whom to arrest in this country, it now explains why for a very long time people have been complaining about selective justice,” he said.
Dennis Miracles Aboagye further argued that Gbande, who also serves as Deputy Director of Operations at the Office of the President, is not a security official and therefore has no professional mandate to direct EOCO operations.
He argued that law enforcement agencies must apply the law equally.
Miracles Aboagye warned that selective application of legal authority amounts to an abuse of that authority. “Any law that you selectively apply is illegal,” he added.
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