MP Arrested Over Car

By Halifax Ansah-Addo

Hon Shirley Ayorkor BotchwayTHE GHANA Police Service, acting under what it called ‘instructions from above’, over the weekend arrested the Member of Parliament for Weija, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, and her driver, Abdul-Razak Aminu.

The double arrest comes barely one week after the visit of United States President Barack Obama to Ghana and is in connection with the MP’s vehicle which was snatched in Rambo style five weeks ago by National Security operatives.

At around 11:30pm last Friday July 17, Hon. Ayorkor’s driver was woken from his sleep and dragged out of his home by a group of armed security agents.

He was subsequently whisked to the Greater Accra Regional Headquarters of the Police MTTU where he was immediately thrown behind bars and locked up till late afternoon of the next day.

His captors explained that when Ayorkor Botchway’s car, a Peugeot 406 with registration number NR961W, was snatched from her five weeks ago, the vehicle had no road worthy certificate and insurance cover; therefore Razak Aminu, who was driving it at the time it was snatched, had committed an offence.

On Saturday morning when Ayorkor Botchway heard that her driver had been arrested, she followed up to the station where she was told on arrival that she herself was going to be detained so she should contact other persons who could bail her, else she remained in detention.

Both the MP and her driver, prior to their arrests, were not under police investigation.

They had not been charged with any offence; neither had they been told that the police wanted to question them over the said car or any other issue.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that the sweet-faced MP, apparently prepared to reside at the station for as long as the authorities would have wished, sent a message to her home that she should be furnished with a local chewing-stick and other items she might need in detention.

Upon protests from her counsel after several hours of detention, the Police authorities made a number of telephone calls to some ‘unnamed’ top persons in the security hierarchy after which the detained Member of Parliament was instructed to write a statement, and then released. The driver was also granted bail and released.

Ayorkor Botchway was instructed to explain in her written statement why her seized vehicle had no road worthy certificate and insurance cover.

The MP explained that she used the said vehicle from 2005 to 2008 in her capacity as a Deputy Minister and that on leaving office in 2009, she opted for a government policy that allows the administrative class to purchase their official vehicles which are two years and over.

The MP disclosed that after paying for the cost of the vehicle, there was an order from the Atta Mills Administration that all former government officials who had purchased their official vehicles should not go ahead with the change of ownership which is a prerequisite for acquiring the Road Worthy Certificate and Insurance Cover.

Indeed, that Presidential directive was communicated to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and the former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, for him to relay the information to all former government appointees.

On June 14 this year, officers from the Gbevlo-Lartey-led National Security stormed the streets and snatched the said vehicle from Ayorkor Botchway’s driver who had been sent on an errand with the car.

She had since expressed her loss of interest in the vehicle and asked that the government returned the money she paid for it. Neither the vehicle nor the money had been returned since then.

No reason had been given for the seizure, and DAILY GUIDE gathered it was sent to the National Security office behind the Ohene-Djan Sports Stadium in Accra.