NDC elders stop Ofosu Ampofo from honouring police invitation

The National Democratic Congress says it will not allow its national chairman, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo to honour the invitation by the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The party has, therefore, urged the Director General of the CID, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah to proceed to arrest Mr Ampofo if she wants.

“If the CID wishes to arrest our national chairman, they can proceed to do so…. He has no assistance to render the CID as far as this matter is concerned,” the NDC stated at a press conference in Accra on Thursday.

The CID on Wednesday invited Mr Ampofo to assist in investigations into some recent kidnappings and fire outbreaks.

A letter signed by the COP Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, said Mr Ofosu Ampofo had been mentioned by some suspects as being “part of a grand scheme designed to cause fear and panic in the country.”

But addressing the press conference, Vice Chairman of the party' Council of Elders, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu said the decision of the Nana Addo led government to prosecute their officials was "malicious" and intended to frustrate the work of the party and mobilization towards the 2020 elections, adding that the party had had enough of the "intimidation" of the ruling NPP.

According to him, the latest invitation was another case of intimidation and harassment where the Akufo-Addo-led government was using the instrumentality of the Police to instill fear in Mr Ampofo.

He stressed that the NDC will not be muffled or unnerved by “a Police CID Director General who has shown by her actions to be a partisan and based supporter, and member of the NPP”.

He also called on members of the NDC to show solidarity with their national chairman and to ensure that his freedom is not jeopardized by any of the vigilante forces that are at the disposal of the government.

Alhaji Iddrisu stated that NDC’s former ministers and former appointees will no longer answer questions before any inquisition panels and bodies since it’s a means to harass and prosecute them.

“We have taken note that the government’s policy of harassment has not been restricted to our national chairman alone. It has been extended to our former ministers and appointees. In these circumstances, we consider it no longer prudent for our former ministers and appointees to cooperate in the numerous inquisition going on into it period in government,” he said.