Police arrest GLICO worker over extortion allegation against NAPAIC Secretary

Police have arrested a GLICO worker, Thompson Amartey, in the Upper East regional capital, Bolgatanga, for offensive conduct.

The Bolgatanga Divisional Police Command took him into custody on Friday, April 21, 2023.

Amartey, who is also alleged to be a pastor, had claimed that the Secretary of the National Patriots against Injustice and Corruption Ghana (NAPAIC-Ghana), Zumah Tii-roug, attempted to extort money from him.

His claim prompted the Upper East Regional Police Command to arrest and detain Tii-roug on April 14, 2023. Amartey, however, has up to now not mentioned the amount of money he claimed the secretary attempted to extort from him.

Tiiroug was kept in police custody for more than 48 hours last week by the Upper East Regional Police Command. He was granted bail from the cells on April 16, 2023. On April 17, 2023, he was taken to a Circuit Court in Bolgatanga on charges of attempted extortion. A police prosecution team waged stiff opposition against a bail application filed by Tii-roug’s lawyer, Sheikh Arif Abdulai. But the court, presided over by His Honour Sumaila Amadu, ruled in favour of Tii-roug, granting him bail in the sum of Gh¢20,000 with two sureties. Tii-roug’s numerous well-wishers, who had thronged the court to show their support for him, celebrated his bail publicly.

On the other hand, supporters of some big shots and “corrupt powers” who dislike Tii-roug in the region because of his relentless anti-corruption campaign against them, left the court’s premises in visible disappointment over the bail granted Tii-roug. They, together with some reporters widely known to be doing the bidding of the “corrupt powers” who hate Tii-roug, had come to court in their numbers with expectations that Tii-roug would be remanded into prison custody where he likely would have spent a much longer period than the over-48 hours he already had done in police cells.

Amartey who is currently inside the cells of the Bolgatanga District Police Station to the displeasure of the anti-Tii-roug camp, is being detained pending a court hearing for illegally confiscating Tii-roug’s motorbike last week.

The GLICO worker illegally impounded Tii-roug’s motorbike on April 13, 2023, after Tii-roug spotted him sitting with a married woman, eating and having a chat with her inside a neem-tree grove in the regional capital and sought to caution him against meeting with married women alone at such locations.

In a press statement delivered on Friday April 21, 2023, after Amartey’s arrest, Tii-roug explained that he had only met with Amartey last week to advise him against meeting with married women alone in isolated places. He said he never made any attempt to extort money or anything from Amartey, contrary to the allegation of attempted extortion he made against him later to his utter shock. A confident Tii-roug had indicated last week that he had enough evidence that would not only contest the allegation but also expose the complainant and the prosecution to the public.

Below is a copy of the press statement issued by Tii-roug on Friday following the arrest of Thompson Amartey:

PRESS STATEMENT

Ladies and gentlemen from the media, good afternoon. It is my hope that you will disseminate this story to the general public.

On the 13th of April, 2023, I went to the Upper East Regional Police Headquarters at about 10:00 am to retrieve my motorbike which was taken by one Detective Corporal Razak after I had lodged a complaint with the Bolgatanga Divisional Police Command that one Amartey Thompson, a so-called pastor and an agent of GLICO, had forcefully impounded my motorbike.

The reason for forcefully impounding my motorbike was based on a piece of advice I gave him to be mindful of the way and manner he reportedly prays for married women in the bush, praying for them in isolated places and eating with them at such places. I cited an example which happened on April 12, 2023, where he was spotted in a bush with a woman who is married to a bank worker. He denied having met with any married woman in a bush on the said date.

I showed him a photograph of someone sitting with a woman in a bush and I asked him to confirm whether he was the one or somebody else in the picture. He confirmed he was the one in the picture sitting with a woman. He became uneasy and furious after seeing the picture. Then, he asked that I delete the picture from the phone. I told him not to worry as deleting the picture would not solve any problem since I had already forwarded it to two people. Then, he asked me to forward it to him, which I did.

Even after I forwarded it to him, he still was not comfortable. Then, he called a friend of his to join us. The person he called was an unfamiliar face. His friend supported him to impound my motorbike. He asked me to go and bring the two people to whom I said I had forwarded the same picture. When I ignited my motorbike to proceed from the scene with an assurance that I would return to the scene with the two people whom he demanded to see, he and his friend held back my motorbike and forbade me from leaving with the motorbike. To avoid getting myself involved in any violence or breaching the peace, I left the scene without my motorbike. Immediately after I left the scene, I reported the matter at the Bolgatanga Divisional Police Command.

The police led me to the scene and we were told by the owner of a bar which is located around the scene that Amartey had called his friend who is a policeman (Detective Corporal Razak) to come for the motorbike. When I went to the Upper East Regional Police Command (where Detective Corporal Razak is stationed) on Friday April 14, 2023, to retrieve my motorbike, I was told that Amartey Thompson had alleged that I attempted to extort money from him after showing him a photograph of himself and the woman. I was asked to write a statement and I was subsequently detained in police cells. I was granted bail and put before court where I was charged with attempting to commit crime to wit extortion. I was again granted bail by the court. Since the case is yet to commence, I would not like to open my defence in this press statement but to ask the general public to trust that justice will be served.

Meanwhile, following the report I lodged on Thursday April 13, 2023, at the Bolgatanga Divisional Police Command against Amartey Thompson, the police have arrested Amartey Thompson and he is currently in police cells on charges of offensive conduct. Hopefully, he will be arraigned before court in due course.  I am using this medium to ask my detractors and their paymasters, who are trying hard to smear me with the same mud which has rather been on their own image, to take note of the current development and the revelations ahead.

Let me conclude with the words of Max Romeo: “The more you look is the less you see. The less you look is the more you see.”

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

…………………………………….

Zumah Tii-roug
Secretary, NAPAIC-Ghana.
(0244242748)