The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has declared that New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament will boycott parliamentary proceedings and sleep at the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) in solidarity with detained NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, also known as Chairman Wontumi.
“Until EOCO does the right thing, we on the NPP side will protest by absenting ourselves from Parliament and joining him. We are all going to sleep there with him,” Afenyo-Markin said on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, May 30.
The walkout follows EOCO’s decision to hold Wontumi in custody after he failed to meet a GHS50 million bail requirement with two sureties, terms his legal team describes as excessive.
Wontumi was arrested on May 27 in connection with an ongoing investigation into alleged financial irregularities involving EXIMBANK.
Afenyo-Markin criticized the bail conditions, questioning how a private citizen was expected to meet such a financial demand. “We don’t have GHS50 million worth of properties. Where is he going to get it from?” he asked.
He insisted the protest is not an attempt to obstruct justice but a call for fairness and equal treatment under the law. “Do your work but respect the law,” he cautioned EOCO. “When it got to this matter of Chairman Wontumi, Parliament was united.”
