Some unidentified men purported to be security operatives have on October 31, 2021, besieged the premises of a church to arrest the Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina Constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu.
According to the MP’s Head of Security, Christopher Selorm Ankou, the men invaded the premises of Believers House of Prayer Ministries at the time when the Human Rights Lawyer was holding a talk during the party’s “thank you tour.”
He said: “they came in rambo-style. They came in large numbers saying they wanted to effect the arrest of the MP. I confronted them and told them he is speaking at the program so they cannot arrest him until he finishes his duties.
“But on a second thought, they refused to provide arrest warrant and were insisting that unless he comes out, they will not show any arrest warrant.”
Mr Ankou also added that they were engaged in the back and forth until some colleague MPs and National Democratic Congress (NDC) party officials came to intervene.
It was at that point, he noted, the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, came and took Mr. Sosu away.
The men, wielding weapons, were not in uniforms and “to be sincere to my conscience, they looked like land guards because we know them when we see them” he told Angelonline.com.gh moments after the incident.
Meanwhile, the attempted arrest of the Deputy Ranking Member on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament is not the first.
On Monday, he escaped an arrest by some Police officers on the back of road blockage by his constituents during a demonstration he led over bad road networks within the La Nkwantanang-Madina Municipality.
The roads blocked included the Ayi-Mensah, Danfa and Otinibi stretches.
Resisting the arrest, he argued that he had followed due process for which reason his attempted arrest and manhandling was unwarranted. “There was a letter of protest and demonstration. The public protest comes in all kinds of ways” he added.
He subsequently petitioned the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, requesting for the officers’ presence before Privileges Committee to answer to their actions.
The officers named in the petition were Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Isaac Kojo Asante who is the Greater Accra Regional Operations Commander, and ACP Eric Winful, the Adenta Divisional Commander.
He noted in an interview with Citi FM that the decision to drag them before the Committee was due to the fact that he was on Parliamentary duties when the officers decided to arrest and manhandle him.
“I was on parliamentary duties when I was leading my constituents and not only was I doing that, I actually served the police notice that right after the event, I was going to go to a leadership meeting in Parliament. So they knew exactly where I was going and they wanted to interfere with that.”
