President can’t arrest Nyantakyi’ —Legal practitioner

A private legal practitioner, George Tetteh Wayoe, popularly known as Ras Wayo, has stated that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has no authority to call for the arrest of the President of the Ghana Football Association, Kwesi Nyantakyi, over fraud.
According to him, the action by the president was against the criminal procedure in Ghana, stating that the initial step by the president was to have reported the matter to a nearby police station.
“The president cannot just wake up from his bed after drinking tea and call for the arrest of someone. No, the president must first make a proper report, a complaint to the police in order for them to pick up the complaint and take the matter up,” he said.
Mr Tetteh Wayoe made this assertion while speaking on Anopa Bosuo Sport on the Accra-based radio station, Happy FM.
Ras Wayoe comment was after the president had directed the arrest of the president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) over alleged false pretenses charge.
Mr Nyantakyi is alleged to have engaged in some peddling, using the name of the president, the vice president, and some top government officials.
The directive follows an investigative piece by the ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
The legal practitioner further stressed that it was wrong for the Deputy Chief of Staff, Abu Jinapor, to refer the issue as prima facie case, adding that the executive arm of government cannot just establish prima facie case with no basis.
“Who told my learned friend, Abu Jinapor, that the president can sit at the confines of his home after eating some nice fufu and establish a prima facie case?” he quizzed.
Mr Tetteh Woyoe added that “We are muddying the waters by not allowing the procedures to work as they should, you cannot tell me that the president after watching the video has established a prima facie case.”
He explained that for a prima facie case to be established, there is the need to first ascertain a fact, a legal existing law should have been looked at to see whether the law would be in tandem with the fact and in a certain discourse.
He was quick to add that, “all am saying that in our dispensation these things are done at the Attorney General department, but the Deputy Chief of Staff didn’t tell us that the attorney general has reacted to the matter, if he had added that when the president received this, the Attorney General and Minister Justice looked into the matter and has advised, then prima facie case can be put across.”
Meanwhile, embattled Ghana Football Association President, Kwesi Nyantakyi, is to turn himself in, following an order for his arrest by President Akufo-Addo, Tuesday.
Information reaching us is that Mr. Nyantakyi, who is on international assignment in Morocco, has indicated his willingness to hand himself over to the police for questioning over allegations of influence peddling by the president.