The Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service has begun what appears to be a move to prosecute the immediate past Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Ebenezer Sekyie Hughes for allegedly stealing state property.
On Thursday June 11, the CID granted the former number three citizen of the land a Police Enquiry Bail, after grilling him at the CID headquarters over a variety of issues.
An official statement from the Police Service said a team of investigators interrogated the former Speaker on “a wide range of issues regarding the items he took from his official residence in Accra.”
The statement said the former Speaker reported to the CID headquarters following “an invitation extended to him.”
It said the former Speaker would report to the Police “as and when he is directed.”
The former Speaker’s Lawyer, Hon Atta Akyea, could not immediately confirm whether his client was indeed interrogated by the CID.
It comes just some two weeks after the former Speaker returned the items he took out of his official residence upon leaving office to the Parliamentary Service Board.
The Public Affairs Office of Parliament later confirmed that the items were received and checked by Officials of the Marshals Department of the House.
President John Mills has been under heavy internal pressure to “order the arrest and prosecution” of the only surviving former Speaker of the land, after it emerged that he emptied his official residence without the permission of the Parliamentary Service Board.
General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Neketia was the first top NDC official to have publicly called for the arrest and prosecution of Mr. Sekyi Hughes for “stealing state property”
In a statement in May this year, the NDC General Secretary wrote: “Stealing is stealing whether the item involved is a cock, cassava or state furniture.”
He added: “The Party strongly disagrees with any suggestion that the former speaker be allowed to go free after returning some of the items and paying for others since this will amount to setting a bad precedence in our anti corruption drive.”
The statement came after Hon Sekyi Hughes admitted stripping his official residence bare of almost all furnishings, upon leaving office but maintained he was under the “impression” that he was “entitled to them.”
In pushing for the former Speaker’s arrest and prosecution, the NDC quoted sections of Page 24 of the party’s 2008 Manifesto to say that President John Mills must not allow the former number three man in the land to go “free.”
“This call is based on the party’s anti-corruption agenda captured at page 24 of the 2008 Manifesto of the party which states in parts; 'An NDC Government will not make any excuses for corrupt Ministers, Officials and Office holders generally'.”
“We shall promptly investigate allegations of corruption and allow the law to take its course…,” the statement said.
