Former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is leading the New Patriotic Party (NPP) leadership’s efforts to secure bail for the party’s Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi.
Divine Agorhom, Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the NPP, has revealed that the party leadership, along with the Minority caucus in Parliament, are working tirelessly to ensure Wontumi’s release.
Wontumi was arrested by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, shortly after leaving the CID office at the Ghana Police Service headquarters.
He was granted GHC50 million bail with two sureties, one to be justified, but was detained in custody because the conditions couldn’t be met.
Deputy Attorney-General, Dr. Justice Srem-Sai, explained on his Facebook page on Thursday, May 29, why Wontumi was being held at the EOCO headquarters.
“Suspect BERNARD ANTWI BOASIAKO, a.k.a. Chairman Wontumi, is under investigation for various criminal offences (including fraud, causing financial loss to the State, and money laundering),” he wrote.
Dr Srem-Sai added that, “The criminal investigation is running concurrently with asset recovery processes – to prevent further dissipation of what law enforcement agencies strongly suspect to be proceeds of crime.
“The suspect is also under a second strand of investigation which is part of a lager international organised crime scheme. The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) is assiduously working with our international law enforcement partners on this second strand of criminal investigations.”
The Minority in Parliament staged a walkout from the chamber on Thursday and protested outside the EOCO premises, demanding more lenient bail conditions for Wontumi.
In a Friday, May 30, 2025 interview with CitiNews, NPP’s Greater Accra Regional Chair, Divine Agorhom, stated that plans are underway to secure Wontumi’s release, with Dr. Bawumia working closely with other party leaders.
“It is not only His Excellency Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia but every senior party person. We are all involved trying to see what we can do. We are hoping that the EOCO itself will be able to vary the condition and make it a bit more lenient for us to meet,” Agorhom said.
