Allow Wontumi to plead in court, not to Mahama if he’s guilty of criminal misconduct — Manasseh Azure to NPP

Investigative journalist and author Manasseh Azure Awuni has called on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to shelve its reported plan to apologise to President John Dramani Mahama over the past conduct of its Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi.

Chairman Wontumi was recently arrested and detained by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) over allegations of organised crime and causing financial loss to the state.

Commenting on the development, the NPP MP for Effiduase-Asokore and Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Dr. Nana Yaw Afriyie, claimed the arrest was sanctioned by an authority higher than EOCO.

He also revealed that the party leadership intends to plead with President Mahama to forgive the regional chairman for some controversial comments he made in the past.

“The hand behind Wontumi’s arrest is bigger than the people who run EOCO and other intelligence agencies. We will go and beg — if we have to kneel before President Mahama to forgive Wontumi, we will. He crossed the line in that video, so we beg,” Dr. Afriyie said in an interview with Accra-based Channel One TV.

Reacting to this, Manasseh Azure Awuni urged the party to allow the law to take its course.

“Dear NPP elders, Wontumi is accused of criminal conduct. If he’s guilty, let him plead in court, not with President Mahama,” he wrote in a social media post on Wednesday, June 11.