Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu says he strongly believes the IGP Dr. Dampare is overstepping his bounds in the case involving the Madina MP Francis Xavier Sosu.
Haruna Iddrisu acknowledged the need to encourage the IGP to enforce law and order but noted that "on this matter, I (he) believe (s) strongly that he (IGP) is overstepping his bounds."
"We are law-abiding and we are not above the law, we've always subjected ourselves to the constitution and laws of Ghana. Anyday anytime I'm ready to walk to the IGP or the regional police command with Francis Sosu provided due process is followed and our processes and procedures for serving sitting Members of Parliament with criminal and civil processes are respected," he added.
Speaking on the Speaker's letter to the Police refusing to release the MP, Haruna Iddrisu said the Speaker is only demanding respect for due process.
READ ALSO : Police deny sending officers to arrest Madina MP at church
"The Speaker is only demanding respect for process and procedures. The Speaker will never stand in the way of justice, obstructing law enforcement will be a head-on collision between Parliament and the Police which is not healthy for our democracy."
Meanwhile, the Director-General of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police Service, ACP Kwesi Ofori, has said the police visited the church premises of the Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina, Francis Sosu, as part of a tactical operation.
ACP Kwesi Ofori said the Member of Parliament has been asked a number of times by the police to report to the station and assist with investigations concerning the activities that took place during the protest that the MP led on October 25, 2021 over poor roads in his constituency.
ACP Kwesi Ofori claimed that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) also wrote to the Speaker of Parliament informing him of the Member of Parliament’s conduct and the need for him to report to the station and assist the Police with investigations but that too has yielded no results.
“And here we are, the Police have been pushed to the wall. Meanwhile, we have that constitutional mandate in our democratic sector to make sure that people respect the law and answer questions regarding crimes committed,” he said.
The Director-General of Public Affairs for the Ghana Police Service said personnel from the intelligence unit of the service noticed that the Madina lawmaker was at the church premises and “they went there under tactical moves to give him a signal that the Police knew where he was and those tactical moves were purely security operations.”
He claimed that the police could have arrested Francis Xavier Sosu using all available means but the leader of the intelligence team decided otherwise and he described, insisting that their presence there was purely tactical.
ACP Kwesi Ofori said the police is currently considering other options to make sure that the Member of Parliament obeys the law.
He also said the police service will seek further interpretations from the Supreme Court on the reasons given by Parliament as constitutional justification for not releasing the Madina MP.