Gbevlo Begs Konadu Boy

The Gbevlo-Lartey-led National Security is making attempts to conceal details of the arrest and detention of George Boateng, a leading member of the Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings (FONKAR), a splinter group in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

A day after his release from the Cantonments police station where he was held for close to 48hours by the police, on the instruction of some yet-to-be-identified National Security operatives for supposedly being a ‘threat to national security’, Daily Guide has stumbled on information indicating that National Security Coordinator Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd) was virtually on his knees begging George Boateng to desist from making any disclosures to the media.


Sources close to Mr Boateng told Daily Guide that upon hearing news of his arrest on Sunday, former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings put in a call to the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, seeking to know whether he knew of the arrest and the offence the gentleman might have committed.


According to the source, the minister, who was not aware of what had transpired, in turn, called the National Security Coordinator to find out the offence of the FONKAR boy which led to his arrest on Friday evening.


Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey, who was equally not privy to the arrest, was said to have instructed Major Awuni, a military officer on secondment to the National Security, to facilitate the immediate release of George Boateng from police custody, which he was able to do in the nick of time.


Afterwards, the National Security Coordinator was said to have invited George to his house on the same Sunday where he apologized to George about the unfortunate abduction and begged him not to talk to the media about it.

The former 64 battalion boss promised to investigate the matter and sanction the security operatives involved since he himself did not understand why they picked and dumped the FONKAR man in police cells with no preferred charges.


George Boateng, a clearing agent at the Aviance Cargo Village, near the Kotoka International Airport and a staunch supporter of Mrs. Rawlings, was picked up on Friday night by three National Security operatives and thrown into cell without charge.


According to George, who said he was in the company of two other people, he was trailed to the Aviance area after parting with his friends.


He told Oman FM yesterday that his captors gave instructions at the police station that he should not have any access to the outside world including his immediate family.


He said he was told that he was arrested on orders from above because he was a security threat, even though no charges were levelled against him.

He was believed to have been arrested because of his close relations with the Rawlingses who have virtually become like ‘strangers’ in the NDC, the very political party they toiled to form.


The Konadu boy was very vocal in the run-up to the recent Sunyani congress of the NDC which re-elected incumbent President Mills as its Presidential Candidate for the 2012 general elections.


What is still not clear is whether his arrest and detention had anything to do with his role in FONKAR or as a clearing agent at the airport since his captors claimed he was a ‘threat to national security.’


His arrest came a day after Deputy Communications Director of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammy Awuku was attacked by unidentified gunmen at the Airport Residential Area where they broke into his car and made away with his laptop computer.


The culprits left behind a cash amount, raising eyebrows about the motive of the culprits.