Don’t yield to Amidu – Ayariga advises MTN over call records

Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga has cautioned telecom giant MTN not to hastily succumb to the request by the Special Prosecutor to provide details of his alleged conversation with an official of the Ghana Revenue Authority.

An Accra Circuit Court on Tuesday ordered the Managing Director of Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) to produce audio conversation of Mahama Ayariga, Member of Parliament for Bawku Central and an officer of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The court gave the order at the request of Special Prosecutor (SP) Mr Martin Alamisi Burns Kaiser Amidu.

Mr Amidu told the Accra Circuit Court “2” presided over by Mrs Ruby Naa Adjeley-Quayson that the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) had already obtained an order to conduct forensic examination on three mobile phone numbers from the Director General of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

He urged the court to exercise its powers under the Electronic Transaction Act, Act 2008(Act 772) of Section 100, 101 and 103.

Reacting to the development on Facebook, the former Minister of Environment said although he would have readily given his call details to the Special Prosecutor had he requested, he will challenge his request to MTN in court.

“I, Mahama Ayariga, would have gladly personally handed my MTN call records to Mr Martin Amidu, if he had just asked me directly, so he will see that I have never placed a call to Mr Kwasi Gyimah-Asante’s phone. I still do not know who Kwasi Asante-Gyimah is.

I however think that in the interest of developing clarity on the law protecting the privacy of the communication of Ghanaian citizens on mobile telecommunications platforms, and setting proper precedents, the breath of the court order should be subjected to legal scrutiny. I have therefore instructed my lawyers accordingly,” he wrote.