'We Will Arrest Amidu' -Kufuor's Advisor

Dr. Amoako Tuffuor, an adviser to President J. A. Kufuor, has disclosed that Mr. Alamise Martin Amidu, former Deputy Attorney-General, will soon be arrested to come and justify what he described as his subversive declarations.

"Amidu has a bad motive and at the appropriate time he will be called upon to explain his statements," Tuffuor said.

Mr. Amidu, who was the Vice-Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the last December elections, had said in an interview with one of Accra's FM stations on the arrest of Mr. Victor Selormey that the NDC has 43 percent of Ghanaians supporting them and that they can organize their numbers to move against the NPP government.

"If we wanted, we could have moved the population there; if we tell the population to move they will move to stop this government," Amidu had said in a belligerent mood on Joy FM.

There was a fracas between security officers and NDC functionaries at the VIP Lounge at the Kotoka International Airport over the arrest of Selormey by agents of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI). Selormey, who had then arrived from London, was finally whisked away to spend the whole night at the BNI headquarters. He was later released on bail

Early last month, there was a near clash between the police and some NDC supporters when the police had gone to investigate an NDC kingpin, Baba Kamara, over the rightful ownership of some vehicles. Functionaries of the NDC who as usual had got wind of the day and time that the police were to make the swoop at Kamara's garage for the cars quickly organized bus-loads of macho men from Nima to confront the police with all kinds of implements.

However, the police, realising the intention of the NDC macho men tactically withdrew their men from the scene and handled the issue more professionally to avoid anarchy.

Amidu, who described himself as the 'shadow Vice-President of Ghana,' said that he could have occupied the same position as the current Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama. He therefore called on the press to stop describing him as the former Deputy Attorney-General because he was elevated from that position to a vice presidential candidate.

Reacting to Amidu's statement, Dr Tuffuor said the Kufuor administration takes a serious view of Amidu's statement and that he will be invited by the state security to clearly explain why he made such 'a seditious statement.'

Dr Tuffuor said that nobody was above the law and that if the state security agencies discover that anybody or group of people flouts the laws of Ghana such persons will be dealt with under the law.

Chronicle learnt last Sunday that a plan to invite Mr. Victor Selormey to the BNI headquarters immediately he disembarked from the British Airways plane was leaked to the NDC functionaries. The top-notch of the party, including Amidu, Huudu Yahaya, the General Secretary of the party; Kwame Peprah, ex- Finance Minister, and other stalwarts quickly moved to the VIP Lounge at the airport and took positions to thwart the planned arrest of Selormey and to cause a scene .

When two BNI operatives and a policeman accosted Selormey on the tarmac and asked that he should accompany them to the BNI headquarters, Amidu burst out of the VIP Lounge and urged Selormey to talk instead to a Choice FM reporter, but the BNI told Selormey he could not talk to the reporter, Chronicle learnt.

Amidu then indicated that the action of the BNI violated Selormey's fundamental human rights and insisted that the BNI operatives could not arrest him, because they had no warrant of arrest.

Amidu later told Joy FM that he happened to be at the VIP Lounge when Selormey arrived and that he did not know that the ex-minister was arriving on that day.

However, Mr. Selormey, hours after his release from the BNI custody, told Joy FM that Mr. Amidu came to the Kotoka International Airport purposely to await his arrival. Selormey disclosed that the BNI questioned him and did not charge him.

Mr. Amidu also denied newspaper reports that there was a scuffle between him and the security agents. He further denied that the Huudu Yahaya and Kwame Peprah were at the scene, but rather they came to the scene after the incident.

Early this month, while Mr. Selormey was out of the country, he was named by the police in connection with alleged wrongful disbursement of a $2 million dollar Exim bank facility.

Mr. Dan Abodakpi, the former Minister of Trade and Industry and member of Parliament for Keta, who was also mentioned in the police announcement, had already gone through the hands of BNI investigators .

Dr Tuffuor told the Chronicle that the BNI have every right to invite Selormey for questioning over economic crime.

Questioned over who has the right to gain access to the VIP Lounge, Dr Tuffuor said that the VIP Lounge "is not a football park where everybody can easily pass through."

He wondered why the ex-NDC functionaries still have access to the VIP Lounge, saying that their status has changed and that if they insist that they are ex- ministers then ministers from Guggisberg's time till today should all have access to the VIP Lounge. The NPP guru, therefore, called for a review of the status of diplomats and politicians who are entitled to use the VIP Lounge.

He said that the reviewing exercise should be done every year to sieve away people who are not entitled to use that place.

A former police officer and former Secretary for Religious Affairs in the PNDC era, Mr. I. K. Obeng, challenged Amidu"s assertion that the BNI has no legal powers to arrest a suspect.

He told the Chronicle that Section 36 of the Criminal Code (Act 29) of 1960 gives the power of arrest not only to the police, but also to ordinary citizens and that the BNI has therefore got absolute power to arrest anybody without warrant if the need arises.