1 week Ago By Ghana News
Nii Lante Vanderpuye is a former MP for Odododiodio constituency A former Member of Parliament for Odododiodio Constituency, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has recalled his experience of being arrested under the erstwhile Nana Akufo-Addo government. Sharing the experience on the back of discussions surrounding the attempted arrest of the sitting Member of Parliament for Assin South, Rev John Ntim Fordjour, earlier in the week, Vanderpuye stated that in his case, he was handcuffed and thrown into the boot of a car even though at the time, he was also a sitting MP. He made the comments on a show on Channel One TV while discussing the topic of the drug trafficking and money laundering allegations made by Ntim Fordjour, against the government, which led to some operatives of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) invading his house at Spintex, ostensibly to arrest him.
The attempt was, however, foiled when several leaders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) stormed the residence of the Assin South lawmaker and foiled the attempt. Much later in the day, the former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was also at his residence in solidarity. But speaking on the matter regarding the legality or not of such a situation of the attempted arrest of a sitting Member of Parliament, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye said he experienced worse under Akufo-Addo.
“The reason being that I went through a much more harrowing ordeal under their government. I was handcuffed and put in the boot of a car as a sitting Member of Parliament on the 7th of December 2020 and dumped at the regional police command. “I collapsed.
I don’t know what happened until 7 hours. 52 of my party officials were arrested when my polling agent had been shot and killed. Up till today, four to five years down the line, my boys are still in court and those who did the shooting are walking free,” he explained.
Speaking further on the matter, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, who is currently the National Coordinator for the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP), stated that even the Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, understands how the law works in matters like these. He added that the leader has even come into some sort of arrangement with the government to present members of his caucus in Parliament to the right authorities in such circumstances. “What happened yesterday is not news.
The honourable Member of Parliament is not in Parliament at this moment in time. The invitation through the Speaker is only when there is parliamentary sitting. The fact that you are a Member of Parliament does not absolve you from being arrested when you commit a crime.
“It is only a privilege that you have, and that privilege is exercised through the Speaker...
what happened was a drama. Ask the Minority Leader, Afenyo-Markin, if he has not had an agreement with the government on how to exercise this right. He had an agreement with our people that at any point in time that his people are needed, he would voluntarily present them,” he added.
Background: Rev John Ntim Fordjour, MP for Assin South and the Minority’s Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee, claimed in a press conference on April 1, 2025, that two flights; an air ambulance and a private jet, might have been involved in drug trafficking or money laundering. He alleged that one of the aircraft, AirMED flight L823AM, landed in Ghana on March 20 and stayed for five days without any record of transporting a patient. These allegations led President John Dramani Mahama to order security agencies to “immediately and fully collaborate with the honourable Member of Parliament so he provides all necessary information to investigate the allegations and take all action necessary to expose any drug dealing.
” President Mahama also directed all security agencies to work with Rev Ntim Fordjour to investigate the drug trafficking and money laundering claims involving the two suspicious flights at Kotoka International Airport (KIA). He emphasised that Ghana has a zero-tolerance policy for drug trafficking and will not allow the country to be used as a transit or final destination for illicit drugs. On Wednesday, April 9, 2025, NIB officials stormed Ntim Fordjour’s residence to pick him up for questioning regarding his allegations.
However, the officers left the residence without arresting him following the intervention of leading figures of the New Patriotic Party, including Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin. Meanwhile, catch up on the concluding part of the story of Fort William, which is the only fort in Ghana with a children’s condemned cell below: AE.
