Deputy Minister for the Interior, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, has justified the presence of armed security personnel at the residence of Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, during an operation on Friday morning in Kumasi.
In an interview with Citi FM, Terlabi stated emphatically that the security services acted on intelligence and had no intention of harming the politician. "The security services are on top of their job, they know what they are about and there is nobody in this country who is above the law," he said. "When you fall foul of the law, the law will come at you," he added, defending the rule of law and the authority of security institutions to act when necessary.
According to the deputy minister, the operation was intelligence-led. "Yes, the information is that the security team went there, I am yet to get the details but what I am saying is that they did not go to Wontumi's house without intel and I don't think I can share all those details on air," he disclosed.
Responding to concerns raised by Wontumi about the heavy security presence and the use of armed personnel for what he claimed should have been a mere invitation, Terlabi said such precautions were necessary given the public conduct of the NPP chairman. "My brother, I am sure you and I will call the security services names if they go there unprepared… the kind of things he [Wontumi] says on air to the extent that even there was a time he was throwing a challenge to the security personnel and the sitting President… in the event that he was trying to do something untoward, the security services must be prepared, that is not to say that they were going there to shoot him down," he clarified.
