Hamza Suhuyini, a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communications Team, has accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of using the ongoing legal troubles of its Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, as a political tool to advance individual ambitions rather than showing genuine solidarity.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, May 31, Suhuyini dismissed the protest staged by NPP Members of Parliament outside the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) as a calculated attempt to score political points ahead of internal party contests.
“They are just fishing for excuses to be able to ply their political ambitions around the whole issue of Wontumi,” Suhuyini stated. “It is not because they have issues with the legalities that this government has adopted. Many of the members are just gunning for positions. They all went there to be retained because they are going for re-election.”
The comments follow a dramatic sit-in staged by NPP MPs on Thursday, May 29, outside EOCO headquarters in Accra, demanding the release of Chairman Wontumi. The MPs, led by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, marched from Parliament to EOCO and occupied parts of the road in front of the agency, chanting and calling for what they described as justice.
The protest drew a heavy police presence and brought traffic in the area to a standstill. Protest leaders accused the state of political persecution and the deliberate use of state institutions to target political opponents.
However, critics, including Suhuyini, argue that the protest was not a principled defence of justice but rather a performance aimed at appealing to party delegates ahead of NPP primaries.
Wontumi was initially arrested on Tuesday, May 27, by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service in connection with alleged financial irregularities.
Subsequently he was taken into custody by EOCO, which is conducting a separate probe into possible financial crimes, including fraud, money laundering, and causing financial loss to the state.
EOCO granted him bail on Wednesday, May 28, setting the bail amount at GH₵50 million with two justified sureties. However, as of Saturday, Wontumi remains in custody despite his lawyers managing to meet the bail conditions.
