Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin has disclosed that despite a meeting by leaders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) with officials of the National Investigation Bureau, they were not allowed to see the detained NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman, Chairman Wontumi.
Former Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Afenyo-Markin and an entourage of NPP leaders visited the NIB office near Ridge on Friday, May 30 to check the welfare of Chairman Wontumi who has been in EOCO’s custody since Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
However, after the meeting with the NIB officials, Afenyo-Markin said the officials claimed that Chairman Wontumi is not at their Ridge premises but has been kept at their Kawukudi office.
He noted that the NIB officials indicated that they can only have access to Chairman Wontumi upon authorization from EOCO.
“Well, all those arrangements were made and upon getting here, they came to tell us different story. We will keep to it and I find it very worrying that a country like Ghana someone would demand GHC50 million before they grant enquiry bail.
“I am telling my friends in NDC to tick some of these things because posterity is watching.
“Not at all, he is nowhere to be found. They claim they could not bring him here and he is still in the custody of NIB at their Kawukudi office. They claim until EOCO authorizes we cannot see him,” he stated.
Afenyo-Markin said the arrest of Chairman Wontumi is a show of power by the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“They just want to teach Wontumi where power lies,” he told journalists after accompanying Former Vice President and 2024 presidential candidate of the NPP, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to visit Chairman Wontumi at the NIB headquarters.
Dr Bawumia also raised issues against the GHS 50 million bail condition for Chairman Wontumi.
He said, “I don’t know how many people in Ghana have properties worth 50 million.”
He believed that the bail condition was to prevent his timely release. “We are going to follow the legal process to make sure he is released.”
Chairman Wontumi was transferred from the headquarters of the Economic and Organised Crime (EOCO) to the NIB office on Friday, May 30.
