ASSEMBLYMEN FIGHT BNI

Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor Minister for the Interior (left), Gbevlo Lartey,National Security Cordinator(right)

The timely intervention by the Asokwa District Police Command in Ashanti Region, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Felix Kwasi Kumado, last Friday October 28, 2011, saved the lives of some operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), when they were attacked by members of the Atwima Kwanwoma District Assembly.

The BNI officials were there to arrest an assembly member during an assembly sitting at Foase, the district capital.

On arrival at the premises of the assembly, the BNI officials did not care to speak to the police at post, and went straight to the assembly hall to arrest the member, Lawrence Botchway, who is Assembly Member for the Dida Electoral Area.

The members of the house became incensed, as a result of which the Presiding Member (PM), Anthony Asare-Yeboah, urged the BNI officials to stop the arrest of the member, since he was covered by immunity.

As it became evident that the BNI operatives would not bulge, the assembly members became furious, resulting in a scuffle, in an attempt to wrestle their colleague from the grips of the operatives.

Still adamant to pleas, the scuffle between the assembly members and the BNI continued until it got out of control, and sensing danger for the BNI operative's life, the police quickly intervened to save the situation.

The police managed to take Lawrence Botchway from the BNI operatives, and ushered him into the assembly hall, where he stayed glued to his seat and enjoyed constitutional immunity.

After several hours of waiting to affect the arrest of the assembly member, the BNI officials drove off.

Unknown to the BNI officials, the embattled assembly member had vanished into thin air, with the aid of some of his colleague members.

Mr. Anthony Asare-Yeboah, in an interview with The Chronicle, indicated that under the Local Government Act 462, no Assembly Member could be arrested while attending assembly proceedings.

He further explained that under the Act, even if an assembly member possesses a summons from a Presiding Member to attend a meeting, he or she cannot be arrested.

Asare-Yeboah said he was not saying the security agents should not arrest a criminal, but his arrest cannot be in the assembly, when the person was performing his constitutional duties, adding that much as the security personnel had the right to arrest, they also had to respect the law.'

The PM told The Chronicle that the assembly would officially write to the authorities on the conduct of the BNI operatives.

Information gathered by The Chronicle, as to why the BNI officials were at the AKDA premises to arrest the Dida Assembly Member, revealed that Lawrence Botchway, who resigned from the Ghana Education Service (GES) as a teacher, had for the past year continued to draw his salary from his former employer (GES).

According to our source, upon a complaint lodged by the GES to the BNI, the assembly member was invited on several occasions, but refused to honour the invitation by the BNI, hence the attempted arrest at the Assembly sitting.

The AKDA, last Friday, met to deliberate on a petition filed against the District Chief Executive (DCE), Anthony Agyemang Nyame, by a section of the assembly members, who were calling for a vote of no confidence in him.

The meeting was to allow the DCE defend himself on the fourteen charges leveled by the aggrieved assembly members.

The DCE, who was accused of violating the procurement process, told The Chronicle that all the allegations against him were baseless, because he followed the proper and normal process of the Procurement Act.

According to Tony Nyame, he was happy that the meeting was called to enable him explain issues to the members, and hoped that at the end of the session, the members would appreciate the workings of the assembly.

He appealed to the assembly members not to resort to chaotic means to create anarchy and tension in the district, at the expense of development for their respective areas.

Tony Nyame said it was his wish that every electoral area received development, but that was impossible, since the resources were limited.

Meanwhile, upon the issuance of a medical form by the Twedie police, the Presiding Member, Mr. Asare-Yeboah, has been treated and discharged at the Foase Health Centre, following a broken wrist as a result of the scuffle between him and the BNI operatives, while he (PM) was trying to prevent the unauthorised arrest of a colleague assembly member.

Pix: Lawrence Botchway, the assembly member behind the BNI invasion at AKDA