Former Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul has expressed deep disappointment and disbelief over the conduct of the Director-General of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), following a dramatic attempt to arrest the Member of Parliament for Assin South at his Spintex residence in Accra.
Speaking in an interview on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday, Mr. Nitiwul revealed that he once entrusted NIB boss Charles Alhassan Kipo with a sensitive role in government and would never have expected him to authorise or be associated with such an operation.
“Him, personally, he was my senior. We worked with him. In fact, we gave him a very sensitive job one time in government. And so there are some things that I would not have expected that they would do,” Mr. Nitiwul said.
“But be as it may, it was really true when I got there that the NIB had actually sent people to the place.”
The Bimbilla MP recounted receiving a distressing call from a colleague about the unfolding situation.
“I got a call from one of my colleagues that the Ranking Member of the Defence and Interior Committee’s house had been surrounded by people suspected to be from the NIB, ostensibly to arrest him. A lot of police officers. I counted over 15 of them,” he narrated.
Alarmed by the situation, he decided to personally assess the scene, citing his previous role as Defence Minister and familiarity with some of the officers.
“When I got there, I didn’t believe that was the case. But I just thought I should go there and find out. Also, being the immediate past Defence Minister, I thought I could help calm the situation down if needed. Truly, when I went, I knew a lot of the principal people who were there. I’ve worked with some of them.”
Mr. Nitiwul described the scene as intense and unsettling, raising concerns over the legality of the attempted arrest.
“The first question I asked was, ‘What do they have? Did they have a warrant?’ They said no.”
He was further shocked when the NIB official leading the operation claimed that his seniority alone justified the action.
“The gentleman who led the operation actually said that he’s a senior person. That alone is enough for him—his face is a warrant in itself.”
Mr. Nitiwul said this reasoning was immediately challenged by legal experts who were present.
“We had a lot of lawyers there who clearly disagreed and told them that you cannot say just because you’re a senior person within the NIB, your face alone is a warrant to arrest a Member of Parliament, or any other citizen for that matter. They all have rights.”
He also raised questions about the presentation of the operatives, noting that many who were not police officers had masked their faces.
“Some of the NIB officials, those who were not police officers, covered their faces. For whatever reason, I cannot tell why they did that.”
While police officers were also present at the scene, Mr. Nitiwul stressed that lawful arrests require legal justification.
“If the police come to say that we believe that we have reasonable suspicion, and based on that, we are arresting you, that’s a different matter. But we just asked them a simple question: Do you have an arrest warrant to arrest him? They said no.”
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