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General News of Thursday, 21 March 2002

Source: Ghanaian Chronicle

Who Ordered Tsatsu's Arrest?

....As Awortwi denies, the plot thickens



Mr. Sam Awortwi, the leading figure on the Government's Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) which has been investigating series of malfeasance at high places has described as unfortunate reports that he and his team deliberately carried out the controversial attempt to seize Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata in church.

He told The Chronicle in a telephone interview that he is worried that people are politicizing the incident and reading all sorts of ulterior meanings into them and wondered what he was going to benefit from embarrassing the Government in the way that had been bandied about.

He was emphatic that he did not give any order to arrest Mr. Tsikata but explained that certain levels of discretion are allowed on the job to officers, but in the instant the order was not to have the former Chief Executive of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation(GNPC) arrested in the Chapel.

There was a general directive that there should be a way to intimate Mr. Tsikata that he was needed at the Police headquarters, he disclosed but was flustered by suggestions that they set out to stage manage an arrest that would ultimately embarrass the Government:

"It can't be so!, I certainly would not do that!, Why would I do that?".

Independently Chronicle gathered that the two police men who went on the controversial visit to the Chapel to attempt to seize Tsatsu, Messrs Hope Nyadi and E. Annang are both members of the SITF team.

The two officers including Mr. Awortwi are currently on interdiction.

Pushed for further clarification the veteran police officer who is also the Boss of the Legal Wing of the Force, said that he is happy that the Police Administration is currently conducting their own probe on the matter and he is optimistic that at the end of the day, everything would become clear.

Chronicle learnt that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mr. Osafo Sampong was in a car with Mr. Awortwi that fateful day when they had a meeting with the A-G's at his residence and actually helped with the identification of some probable sources to locate Tsatsu.

The big question is whether the three officers are being scapegoated.

Who gave the order?

Was there an order?

Were the men using their discretion and made the error of judgement that Mr. Tsikata subsequently exploited with his extensive press interviews and alarms?