It’s up to police to investigate Carlos – Presidency

The presidency has refrained from joining calls for the prosecution of deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Carlos Ahenkorah, who has resigned for breaching coronavirus safety protocols.

Communications Director, Eugene Arhin, has said the decision to investigate Mr Ahenkorah lay with the police and not the presidency.

“If the police decide to conduct an investigation that is within the purview of the police,” he said on Asempa FM, monitored by theghanareport.com.

The deputy Trade and Industry Minister who tested positive for coronavirus admitted he visited voter registration centres within his Tema West constituency in the Greater Accra region.

His resignation was announced Friday morning after growing pressure from social media since his admission Thursday.

But the main opposition, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has indicated the resignation was not enough.

“Resignation is not part of our laws. It is not part of the COVID protocols. If they have taken that administrative step, fine, we agree. But we are waiting to see that they are prosecuted in the same way that the ordinary man on the street has been prosecuted. They must prosecute Carlos Ahenkorah,” the party’s General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia has said.

A pressure group, OccupyGhana, has also said a lack of further action from the police would “cast the government as not just being hypocritical, but as being incapable… and incompetent to enforce laws it has made.”

But Eugene Arhin has maintained that the presidency wants to respect the independence of the police in deciding whether to conduct investigations.

The presidency has referred matters to the police for investigations on several occasions.

In July 2018, the presidency referred the acting Director-General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Robert Sarfo Mensah, to the police for further investigations after he was implicated in sports corruption.

Last February, President Akufo-Addo also referred the Airbus bribery saga to the Special Prosecutor for investigations.

More recently, the president reportedly told Nigeria’s president, Buhari, he had ordered investigations into the demolition of a building within the Nigeria High Commission in Ghana.