I would’ve broken Wontumi’s door to bring him out if I was in Ghana

Deputy Director of Operations at the Presidency, Mustapha Foyo Gbande, has said he would have personally led a forceful entry into the house of Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman, Bernard Antwi Bosiako, also known as Chairman Wontumi, if he had been in the country during the latter’s first failed arrest attempt.

The politician and businessman, who granted an interview on his Wontumi FM while national security operatives had surrounded his house, called on the public to come to his aid.

Reacting to the failed arrest on Accra-based JoyPrime on Wednesday, June 18, Gbande noted that if he “was there—I was outside the country at the time—I would have broken into his house and got him out. But they didn’t do that.”

Chairman Wontumi was later arrested by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) on May 27, after honouring an earlier invitation from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

Reacting to criticisms of Rambo-style arrest, Mr. Gbande, who also serves as Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), justified the action and said it was carried out lawfully and appropriately.

“Wontumi was properly arrested, not manhandled. I think that was the most modest form of arrest, because when a man tells you he controls the Ashanti Region—that when a former president is visiting, national security should negotiate with him—you don’t arrest such a person with two police officers,” he argued.

“You have to take a full armoury, including explosives, to pick him up. You said you are dangerous. Okay, why should I assume you’re not, when I don’t know what is in your house?” he added.

Wontumi was charged with offences related to organized crime and causing financial loss to the state over his alleged involvement in illegal mining.

He was later granted bail in the sum of GHS50 million after spending a week in EOCO custody.