A party official saying he instructed EOCO to arrest a sitting MP has reopened the debate over whether Ghana’s law enforcement agencies act independently of politics.
A row over who gets to tell Ghana's investigators whom to arrest has broken out after a senior governing party official said he gave such an instruction himself.
Dennis Miracles Aboagye, the newly elected Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has questioned the authority of Mustapha Gbande, Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to direct the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to arrest a Member of Parliament.
EOCO is the state agency mandated to investigate economic and organised crime, including fraud and money laundering.
What triggered the exchange
Mr Gbande admitted that he instructed EOCO to arrest Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, the Member of Parliament for Manhyia South in the Ashanti Region. Mr Aboagye said he watched the clip of that admission on a morning programme and was troubled by it.
Speaking on JoyNews' The Pulse on Monday, 5 October, Mr Aboagye said the episode would not look good to people following Ghana from outside the country. "People are asking themselves, what kind of democracy is Ghana running?" he said, as reported by MyJoyOnline.
The independence question
Mr Aboagye's central argument is that a political party officer has no professional standing to tell a law enforcement agency who should be picked up. He noted that Mr Gbande also serves as Deputy Director of Operations at the Office of the President, but said that role does not make him a security officer with operational authority over EOCO.
He linked the admission to long-standing complaints about selective justice, arguing that if a party official can determine who gets arrested, it explains why those complaints have persisted.
On the principle, he was blunt: "Any law that you selectively apply is illegal," he said.
Mr Aboagye added that he had expected an apology from Mr Gbande rather than a defence of the directive. In his view, decisions on arrests should follow professional assessment and established procedure, not political instruction.
Why it matters
For Ghanaians at home and in the diaspora, the dispute goes beyond two party operatives trading words. It touches on whether state investigative bodies are seen to act on evidence or on political cues, a perception issue that affects investor confidence and Ghana's standing as a stable democracy in West Africa.
So far, the reporting covers Mr Aboagye's objection and Mr Gbande's admission. Neither EOCO nor the Office of the President has publicly set out its position on the claim, and the status of any case involving the Manhyia South MP has not been detailed.
NewsPulse GH will follow the story as EOCO, the Presidency or the MP respond.
