The Ghana Police Service has maintained that its personnel adopted lawful procedure in inviting the Member of Parliament for Asutifi South, Collins Dauda to the police headquarters for questioning.
This is contrary to claims by the Minority in Parliament that the police did not follow due process in inviting the MP for questioning.
The speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye and the Minority described as unacceptable the attempted arrest of the Asutifi South MP after armed police men allegedly invaded his residences.
Later when he reported himself at the police headquarters in Accra, he was cautioned with abetment of assault for allegedly leading a group to attack a resident of Kenyasi.
He was granted a self-recognizance bail after hours of questioning at the CID headquarters.
But speaking to Citi News, the Director General of the Police Public Affairs Director, ACP David Eklu, said the police followed standard procedure in the case.
“If they went to his house to invite him I don’t think there was a breach of Parliamentary process as far as inviting members of Parliament to come and answer questions of criminal complaints against them. What I know is that every citizen in this country under the constitution is enjoined to cooperate with lawful agencies in the discharge of our duties.”
“What I also know is that if the Member of Parliament is on his way to Parliament he cannot be arrested. That doesn’t mean that he cannot be invited on phone to come to the Police headquarters or to come to the police to answer questions. He is only assisting in investigations,” he added.
‘Don’t arrest any MP without informing me’ – Speaker warns police
The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, on Tuesday warned the Police against arbitrary attempts to arrest some Members of Parliament without recourse to laid down parliamentary procedure.
He said on the floor of Parliament that the actions of the police were a clear breach of parliamentary immunity.
“We want the security agencies to be mindful of the fact that the police should not invade the premises of a member of Parliament or appear to be doing so in a manner that will raise unnecessary difficulties for us,” he added.
“We want to put on record that in future, the leadership of the House and the Speaker of the House should be informed of all such needs so that it can be done with the appropriate decency.”
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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Anass Seidu/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
The post We didn’t breach parliamentary process in questioning Collins Dauda – Police appeared first on Citi Newsroom.
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