The Deputy Minister of the Interior, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi has explained that security officers who went to Bernard Antwi Boasiako's house in Kumasi on Friday morning were there to invite him.

Earlier on Friday officers from the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) withdrew from the residence of Bernard Antwi Boasiako, also known as Chairman Wontumi, after an attempted arrest on Friday triggered a standoff between security operatives and some supporters of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Kumasi.

The early morning operation saw a joint team of National Security operatives and Police officers surround the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP’s private residence in Kumasi, prompting widespread confusion and tension in the Daban area. The reasons for the raid was earlier unclear.

Chairman Wontumi, who was reportedly inside the house during the operation, is said to have assured the officers that he would honour any official invitation on Monday, May 26, 2025.

Despite this, the heavily armed security presence provoked a strong backlash from party loyalists who began gathering at the property in protest.

As the crowd of NPP supporters swelled and chants of defiance rang out, pressure mounted on the security agencies.

The NIB subsequently ordered a complete withdrawal of its operatives from the scene, temporarily defusing tensions that had begun to grip the neighbourhood.

Addressing journalists after the withdrawal, the NPP’s Ashanti Regional Secretary and a member of Wontumi’s legal team, Kwame Adom-Appiah, criticised the manner in which the security operation was conducted, calling it “immature” and excessive.

“When you are going to arrest someone and arrive with about 20 vehicles, when the person is neither a coup plotter nor has any intention to overthrow the government, I don’t think it is appropriate,” Adom-Appiah stated.

He further argued that such a show of force was not only wasteful but an unnecessary burden on state resources. “A simple invitation would have sufficed. And even if he failed to honour it, there are proper, lawful ways to effect an arrest.”

Although the immediate tension has subsided following the NIB’s withdrawal, a number of NPP supporters remained around the residence, insisting on clarity about the motive behind the operation and the legality of the attempted arrest.

Official response

In a radio interview monitored by Graphic Online on Citi FM on Friday evening, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, the Deputy Minister of the Interior provided a formal response and said "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."

"When you fall foul of the law, the law will come at you," he said.

He said the security services operate with intelligence and so if "Wontumi is on the radar and they want him, nobody can prevent them from getting him to come and answer questions."

"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 added and advised that the security services should be allowed to do their job.

The Deputy Minister of the Interior also advised against inciting the public on the basis of "mischief".

"They did not go there to go and kill him, they went there to invite him, so if at the end of the day, they decided otherwise that he should be brought on Monday, so be it."

He said they should be no attempt to obstruct law enforcement officers from doing their job.

Responding to a question on Wontumi's complaint that the officers were armed and that a mere invitation should not be seeing armed me in his house, the deputy minister said, "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."

"Because the gentleman in question has made all manner of statements..., if you are to go and catch a wild dog, you don't go there without arming yourself."