NDC Arrests Tape Suspect

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), in Accra, has nabbed a man suspected as being responsible for the leaked Yaw Boateng Gyan scandalous tape.

Last Friday, NDC operatives, incensed by the outrage that has greeted the infamous NDC National Organiser’s tape in which he promised to infiltrate the National Security apparatus with party foot-soldiers, arrested a member suspected to be responsible for the leakage, at the party headquarters.

The suspect, a member of the party, was dragged to the Nima Police station, but the police had to release him for want of charges.

According to sources at the police station, the police officers were confused as to what charges to prefer against Michael Amankwah who was given a ‘citizen’s arrest’ by NDC members on a mere suspicion.

The arrest follows days of painstaking search for the mole responsible for leaking the telltale tape to the Ghanaian public and now the source of unquantifiable embarrassment to the party.

Michael Amankwah, according to an anonymous source both within the police and the NDC headquarters, was nabbed at the party headquarters and taken to the Nima Police Station by a certain Ferkeh on Friday and handed over to the police officers at the station.

Being a case with national security implications, a counter Non-commissioned officer (NCO) referred the matter to the Divisional Commander, DAILY GUIDE gathered.

The Divisional Commander was said to have handed over the case to the District Commander.

At the time of filing this report, our source informed us that the police were unable to prefer any charge against Michael Amankwah, a suggestion that the matter would hit a cul-de-sac.

The suspect, according to our source, was detained overnight and when the District Commander for Nima, Aduhene Banieh, turned up on Saturday, he asked that he be released on bail since he could not be charged with any offence.

The Nima Police have refused to corroborate or deny the story, obviously scared to be dragged into the minefield of political stories involving the ruling party.

A source there however confirmed the story but asked for anonymity since according to him, this was an internal NDC matter “and we would not want to be dragged into it”.

It is not known how the NDC would handle the matter, given the legal challenges debarring them from going beyond where it has reached now, since Michael Amankwah has not been charged.

Sources said Amanakwa was a wrong person and that the person who wired the meeting venue was still a bonafide member of the NDC walking freely at the party headquarters.

Guests of Yaw Boateng Gyan, on the day he made the subversive disclosures and as captured in the telltale tape, until the arrest of Suspect Michael Amankwah, have been on tenterhooks not knowing which of them would be suspected of being responsible for the leakage.

The sigh of relief the gentlemen heaved was short-lived, given the difficulty in preferring a charge against Michael Amankwah who, as it is, cannot be arraigned.

The leadership of the party would have to resume the trial-and-error approach and see whether that would unearth the man it thinks is responsible for their predicament.

Mr. Gyan made negative headlines recently when his closed-door engagement with party faithful on the NDC’s strategies for the forthcoming elections was recorded and leaked.

Some of the outrageous contents such as the provision of fast vehicles to undertake Election Day tasks, the collection of money from the Finance Ministry for party work and the issuance of national security apparatus identification tags for party persons attracted a countrywide outcry.

Mr. Yaw Gyan’s admission that the voice was indeed his, and the defence by General Secretary of the party Johnson Asiedu Nketia have made the matter even murkier.

The presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana and Chairman of the National Peace Council, Rt. Rev. Prof Emmanuel Asante, could not believe that such a deadly plot could be hatched by the ruling party in the name of retaining political power.

Rev Asante joined many Ghanaians demanding that the NDC National Organiser be invited by the police for questioning regarding the clandestine engagement he had with the party supporters.

Petition To Arrest Yaw Boateng Gyan

Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, a Ghanaian, in a petition to the CID yesterday, titled ‘Petition To Arrest, Investigate And Prosecute Mr. Yaw Boateng Gyan Over Leaked Secret Tape Recording’, called for the immediate arrest of Mr. Gyan.

He premised his demand upon the contents of the leaked tape which, according to him, threatened national security.

Some aspects of the leaked secret tape recording, according to the petition, pointed at how some NDC party faithful were to be recruited into the Special Forces and given National Security identification to pose as National Security officials and undertake clandestine activities, breaching the laws of the country.

The intention to use state funds provided by the Minister of Finance and the Director of Finance of the Finance Ministry to fund illegal activities now and during the 2012 elections formed another aspect of the petition.