A former deputy Power Minister and Member of Parliament for the MP for Yapei Kusawgu, John Jinapor’s says his two children were left traumatized by the Friday morning police raid on his home for documents pertaining to the 2015 AMERI deal.
His Tema home was stormed by five police, two of them armed and three others in plain clothes, and the MP felt the security personnel “didn’t need to go to that extent… I don’t think it is proper to besiege my house.”
Speaking after the incident, Mr. Jinapor narrated to that when he was about to leave home for Parliament, “five policemen, two of them armed with AK 47s, accosted me and indicated that they had a search warrant from the court to look for documents in relation to AMERI.”
He noted that he had a CCTV camera surveilling his home “that records both audio and video so if need be, I will get the guys who did the installation to extract that clip… To come to my house with all those weapons and put my children in the state of trauma, it leaves much to be desired.”
This raid on his home followed a raid on the home of the former Minister for Power, Kwabena Donkor by some personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) on Monday morning, also in connection with the AMERI deal where it was alleged the Mahama administration paid in excess of $150m in the agreement.
‘I was not allowed to leave home’
Mr. Jinapor was not allowed to leave his home until the search on his raid was completed. Despite his reservations, the presence of armed men compelled him to stand aside and watch on with his family.
“I told them I needed a copy of the search warrant but they insisted they couldn’t give a copy to me because that was the instruction from their superiors.”
“They insisted that they had express instructions from their superiors and they would not let me leave until they conduct what they call a search for documents in relation to AMERI.”
“I knew it was not appropriate but if you have people with weapons in the house, and the fact that my children were traumatized, I had no choice but to open my house to them,” the MP recounted.
The search by the police bore no fruit as they left without finding documents pertaining to the AMERI deal in Mr. Jinapor’s home, but they did confiscate his phone and request for his Parliament laptop.
“They did search the entire house… but they couldn’t find whatever document they were looking for. They said they wanted my laptop and I made it clear to them the laptop was in Parliament because the laptop was the property of Parliament and it was secured in Parliament.”
“If they needed it urgently, then we had to go to Parliament, meet the Speaker [of Parliament] and inquire whether the Speaker would agree to be released to them but they indicated that I should go and tell the Speaker that. So I intend going to the speaker to inform him that the police administration claims that they are in need of that laptop.”
Mr. Jinapor further reiterated that all relevant documents pertaining to the AMERI deal that he knew of “were in possession of the [Energy] ministry following the setting up of the Philip Addison committee.”
Mr. Jinapor was also told he was to report to the police on Monday, July 31.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
