Wontumi on radar of state security agencies since 2010 – NDC’s Suhuyini

A member of the legal team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Hamza Suhuyini, has claimed that Chairman Wontumi has been on the radar of Ghana’s security agencies for over ten years.

According to him, long before Bernard Antwi Boasiako became Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), his name had already come up in various security investigations.

Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, May 31, Suhuyini explained that concerns about Wontumi’s dealings go as far back as 2010. At that time, he said, the then Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Inusah Fuseini, had already begun probing Wontumi’s activities.

“Investigations into the life of Wontumi didn’t start today. You remember in 2010, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources then, Hon. Inusah Fuseini had cause to go into the activities of Wontumi,” Suhuyini said.

He added that Ghana’s National Security even reached out to Interpol during that period. According to Suhuyini, Wontumi was allegedly linked to an international car theft syndicate, which had caught the attention of the United States and several African countries.

“In the midst of that, when the state apparatus seemed to be closing in on him, we are told that he found it convenient then to simply go pick up a party card and subsequently contest for regional chairman of the New Patriotic Party,” Suhuyini added. “At that material moment, going after him would have simply meant going after an NPP person. That would have brought the entire machinery of the NPP to support him get away with many of these wrongs.”

Suhuyini claimed that even under the Akufo-Addo administration, Wontumi continued to attract the attention of security authorities. He referred to a past decision by then Lands Minister Samuel Abu Jinapor, who halted the operations of Akonta Mining in the Tano Nimri Forest Reserve—allegedly due to Wontumi’s involvement.

According to Suhuyini, the main problem now is that too many people are allowing politics to blind them to the real issues. He said Ghanaians must look beyond party colours and focus on the core matter, which is about possible crimes and abuse of power.

“Largely because our politics has become so porous for the likes of him to penetrate, now we are all now talking about the politically exposed nature of that particular investigation to the detriment of the germane issues that as a responsible society we should be looking at,” he stated.

He urged Ghanaians not to be distracted by partisan noise but to pay attention to the serious allegations involving economic crimes and the abuse of public trust.