Member of Parliament for Effiduase-Asokore, Hon. Ayew Afriyie, has revealed his earlier conversation with Wontumi indicating to the Ashanti Regional Chairman some of his offensive comments agaisnt President John Dramani Mahama which he has to seek for forgiveness.
According to the lawmaker, the elders of the party are making plans to pay a courtesy visit to the President and apologise on behalf of the Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Bosiako.
Chairman Wontumi is being investigation by Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for his involvement in alleged crime related offenses including money laundering and causing financial loss to the State.
During an interview with Umaru Sanda on Channel One TV’s Face to Face, Dr. Afriyie indicated that Wontumi current predicament can be attributed to his posture and utterances he made against the President.
“For Chairman Wontumi’s case, we’re going to beg. The hand behind this is bigger than the people who run the EOCO and the intelligence agencies. I will put it at the doorstep of President Mahama. Wontumi went overboard in some of his videos.
And I played a lot of them to show him on June 9. I told him we will go and beg, if we have to kneel down in front of President Mahama, and we will tell him that for these videos, he [Wontumi] overstepped his boundaries,” he said.
He admitted that Wontumi’s comments directed at President Mahama during the 2024 campaign period were inappropriate and a direct attack on his (Mahama) personality. Wontumi has also accepted to apologise according to the MP.
Dr Afriyie in his remarks noted that healthy politically rivalry is expected but a direct attack on the personality of individuals aimed at destroying their reputation should not be encouraged.
Wontumi was picked by the Officials from EOCO after a short interaction with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters in Accra on May 27.
The arrest was met with strong resistance by NPP party leaders and supporters who stormed EOCO premises chanting and asking for the immediate release of the NPP stalwart. The unpleasant scenes called for the immediate deployment of military personnel to restore order.
After 24 hours of being detained, Wontumi was granted a Ghc50 million bail with two sureties on Wednesday May 28. His lawyers led by Andy Appiah-Kubi claimed that Wontumi’s bail conditions were met as of Friday May 30 but his release was delayed due to a pending motion for bail review filed without the consent of the accused.
However, Wontumi was able to meet his bail requirements on June 2 where he got released.
