EOCO attempted arrest of Manhyia South MP legally flawed-GIMPA law lecturer

The confrontation between EOCO officers and Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah at the Accra High Court has drawn legal criticism from lawyer and GIMPA law lecturer, Nicholas Lenin Anane Agyei.

Mr Anane Agyei says the attempted arrest could not be justified merely on the claim that the MP had failed to honour an EOCO invitation.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, he argued that the Economic and Organised Crime Office Act does not make refusal to attend an invitation a criminal offence.

He described the attempted arrest as “flawed beyond saving”.

The lawyer based his argument on Section 19 of the EOCO Act, 2010, Act 804.

According to him, the provision allows the Executive Director of EOCO to invite a person to assist with an investigation.

It also allows EOCO to require a person to produce documents.

But Mr Anane Agyei said the law creates a sanction only for failure to produce documents, not for failure to appear in response to an invitation.

“When you go to Section 19(5), it criminalises failure to produce documents when it is required, but it has not said anything about a refusal to honour an invitation,” he said.

He said that distinction was important because an invitation, by its nature, is not the same as an arrest warrant or a command backed by criminal punishment.

For him, Parliament deliberately chose not to criminalise refusal to attend an EOCO invitation.

“And so it was not a lacuna intended by Parliament. Parliament intended not to criminalise refusal to appear, because an invitation is what it is,” he said.

Mr Anane Agyei said if Parliament wanted non-attendance to attract criminal consequences, it would have said so clearly in the same provision.

“If Parliament intended that EOCO requires you to appear and you refuse to, you should have consequences, it would have in that same section being provided,” he added.

On that basis, he said any alleged failure by the MP to respond to EOCO could not, by itself, justify an arrest.

“So on that score, the failure of Baffour Awuah to respond or attend the invitation, even if he so did, will not have been the basis for EOCO to arrest him in any sort of manner,” he said.

The law lecturer also questioned the absence of an arrest warrant.

He said the circumstances, as presented, did not meet the conditions required for a lawful warrantless arrest.

“The fact that there was the absence of warrant and also, the fact that the conditions for a warrantless arrest did not exist,” he said.

Mr Anane Agyei acknowledged that many arrests in Ghana are carried out without warrants.

But he stressed that common practice should not be mistaken for lawful procedure.

“I dare say that most of the arrest that happens in this country often are warrantless,” he said.

His comments follow the September 23 confrontation between the Manhyia South MP and EOCO personnel at the Accra High Court.