Majority Leader, Hon Mahama Ayariga has fired a blunt response at the Minority caucus over their protests concerning the conviction of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, widely known as Chairman Wontumi.
Reacting to the Minority comments that Wontumi incaciration was political in the debates n the mid-year budget review, Mr Ayariga challenged opposition MPs to pack their bags and check into prison themselves if they truly wished to show meaningful solidarity with their convicted colleague.
Background to the Outcry
Chairman Wontumi was recently handed a 20-year prison sentence by a High Court in Accra following a high-profile legal battle over illegal mining (galamsey) offences linked to the Samreboi concession in the Western Region.
The ruling sent shockwaves through the opposition NPP, with top leadership convening emergency meetings and decrying the verdict as a form of “political imprisonment” and selective justice.
Minority MPs have fiercely criticized the state machinery, arguing that the heavy sentence is a weaponized attack against opposition figures.
” Fight Your Case in Court”
Pushing back fiercely against the Minority’s claims of executive overreach, the Majority Leader insisted that the government and the Attorney General’s office had no hand in the outcome of the judicial process.
”It was not the Attorney General… who convicted Wontumi; it was a judge. If you have any grievances, fight your case in court,” Mr Ayariga stated on the floor of the House.
Dismissing assertions that the legislature or the executive arm of government orchestrated the 20-year sentence, the Majority Leader maintained that the separation of powers remains intact.
He advised the Minority caucus to channel their energy into the legal appeals process rather than crying foul and attempting to politicize a purely judicial decision.
Legal teams for the embattled NPP regional chairman have already served notice that they are challenging both the conviction and the severity of the sentence at the Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, tension remains palpable in Parliament as both sides of the political divide lock horns over the ongoing national fight against illegal mining.
Source: Felix NYAABA/expressnewsghana.com