The Minority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament for Asawase, Muntaka Mubarak, has appealed to the Speaker of Parliament Professor Mike Oquaye to call the police who raided homes of some members of the minority who served in the previous administration to order.
The homes of former Deputy Power Minster John Jinapor and former Deputy Attorney General Dr Dominic Ayine were raided by officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service in search of documents covering the controversial $510million Ameri power on Friday, 28 July 2017.
Making a statement on this development in Parliament on the same day, Mr Mubarak said: “Mr Speaker, I believe not only members on our side, but, every Member of Parliament is a law abiding citizen and they will not run away from any responsibility to assist the state to do anything.
“But Mr Speaker, the worry is the nature and manner the Police is raiding the residence of Members of Parliament at dawn when that citizen is not running, when the person has not been served with a notice that he has been charged. This is a very worrying situation.
“We on this side can reassure not only the police but the whole state that every member on our side is more than willing and ready to assist in any investigation that the government or the state wants to do but let’s do it in a manner that does not create panic and frustration.
“The invitation of these members on Monday when this house is sitting is an affront to the dignity of this house and will impede the members’ ability to perform their functions in this house. It is with this that I want to humbly appeal to your good office to intervene and assure the police that we, and I believe every Member of Parliament will be more than happy to assist in any form.”
Speaking on the raid, Mr Jinapor said: “They gave me a letter signed by Bright Oduro inviting me to come to the CID (Criminal Investigations Department) office at 1pm on Monday but Monday 1pm, I’m told the Minister is presenting the mid-year budget to parliament.”
Mr Jinapor said: “I’m not against investigations; sometimes investigations are good and I’m ready to cooperate with the police and any other agency in relation to this matter. I think that the truth will come out but it should be done in a humane way”.
The raid comes three days after men from the CID confiscated laptops, phones and other electronic devices of the former Co-ordinator of the Emergency Power Programme at the Ministry of Energy, Francis Gyata following a similar raid at his home in Accra.
That raid was on Tuesday, July 25 as part of ongoing investigations into the Ameri power deal.
The raid in Gyata’s home also followed a similar raid at the home of former Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor on Monday where four officers of the CID led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) stormed the Spintex residence of former Minister to search his property in connection with investigations into the same deal. Dr Donkor is being accused of willfully causing financial loss to the state.
Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com
