Court issues arrest warrant for Tamale NPP Vice Chairman

A circuit court in Tamale has issued an arrest warrant for the Northern Regional vice chairman of the ruling NPP, Alhaji Iddrisu Sunday after he failed multiple times to produce before the court, a former chairman of the party standing trial for allegedly stealing GHC70,000.00 from a young shea nut farmer, after he stood surety for him.

Alhaji Sunday stood as a guarantor for the former chairman, Alhassan Adoo, to be released after he was arrested and charged last year for using names of Kwadwo Mpianim and late Jake Obetsebi Lamptey to swindle the farmer some eight (8) years ago.

Alhassan Addo who chaired the party in the region from 2007 to 2009 after the death of Alhaji COP of blessed memory, designed a web of well-coordinated lies and double dealing to defraud by false pretense the 33-year-old farmer, Nashiru Mohammed Bashiru, using the names of these leading figures in the party.

Chairman Adoo was arrested in October 2017, seven years of invading justice, after deceiving Bashiru to spend GH60, 900 on him from 2010, a year after his chairmanship mandate expired, to 2013.

How The NPP Chairman Defrauded the Farmer.

According to the young farmer, the NPP former chairman approached him one afternoon in 2010 at his residence and handed over a mobile phone to him that Kwadwo Mpianim had requested to speak with him.

The caller online, according to Bashiru, introduced himself as Kwadwo Mpianim and went ahead to praise him for assisting the chairman, who at the time was facing turbulent times and could not even pay his children’s school fees.

Bashiru said the caller then went ahead to inform him that he had planned to engage in large scale rice farming in the North and wanted he (the farmer) to finance the venture in return of three tractors and some post-harvest machines.

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He said subsequent discussions ensued between them and he started doling out money to chairman Adoo who was serving as middleman and caretaker of “Kwadwo Mpianim’s” rice farm.

However, in 2013 Bashiru became suspicious when chairman Adoo was spotted in town after he took GH10, 000 that he was leaving to the Takoradi port that day to clear some 500 bicycles and other goods shipped from China by Kwadwo Mpianim and late Obetsebi Lamtey, who was said to be part of the deal.

When the chairman was called on phone, he insisted he was in Takoradi and dropped the call, and never answered any call of the farmer.

The farmer said he reported the matter to Dominic Nitiwul, now Defense Minister, who expressed alarm by the spurious narration and told him bluntly he had been duped.

“He said the man is a fraudster and liar”, Bashiru recounted, adding, “Hon Ditiwul told me that he knows Kojo Mpianim in detail and personally, that he would not do such a thing.”

Bashiru said the scandal went way up to Kwadwo Mpianim himself and scandalized by the account, Mpianim invited the former chairman to Accra but he declined.

In a very few words Mr. Mpianim denied vehemently and pushed back all the claims by the chairman. Mpianim even said he had no working relationship with chairman Adoo and subsequently directed Bugri Naabu, the immediate past chairman of the party to take over the matter for a resolution.

The party leadership in the region chaired by Dr. Clifford Braimah, then secretary of the and now Managing Director of Ghana Water Company, then organized a meeting with the farmer and a compromise was reached that the party would pay the money.

The party, however, failed to honor the pledge to pay the money, compelling the farmer to report the matter to police.

In 2015 police officers from the regional quarters made their first attempt to arrest chairman Adoo at his private residence in Zogbeli.

They were attacked and severely assaulted by some marauding youth called in by the chairman.

Bashiru who witnessed the attack said some of the police men had bloody noses and scratched faces and fled from the area very damaged.

In 2017, the young farmer renewed the litigation and went to file a fresh report at the police station. The farmer together with police investigators designed a plan to arrest the chairman.

When they began to execute the plan after several weeks of strategies, investigators feigned their identity, location and called the chairman, also known for his love for black magic, to tell him they needed his help to acquire spiritual powers.

The police investigators were to come from Accra and meet up with the chairman at a location they chose. The plan was to get the chairman move out the frontier of his area to avoid the fate suffered by the earlier police officers.

On Wednesday, the police investigators arrived and scheduled the meeting with the chairman at the Regional Coordinating Council.

The chairman earlier decoyed a friend but the police investigators declined to deal with that person and requested his presence.

Chairman Adoo later appeared and he was quickly grabbed and sped off to the police station where he was locked up in custody.

News of his arrest spread to his area and to the attention of party leadership in the region. Moments later, some youth wearing party shirts and paraphernalia besieged the police station demanding his release.

The Regional Crime at the time and one officer Kankam stood their ground and refused to be intimidated by the distractive crowd. Chairman Adoo cooled off that Wednesday night inside the police detention facility despite distractions from the youth and politicians.

On Thursday morning when the youth started massing up at the police station again and the politicians getting their obstructive best, the police yielded, and the chairman was made to write a statement and was slapped with an inquiry bail with the sum of GH62,000.

Bashiru said many politicians intervened to seek release for the chairman including Bugri Naabu and the regional youth organizer, Alhaji Rashid Salifu COP.

Prosecutors forwarded the docket to the Attorney General department in the region after the chairman was charged before a circuit court.

He appeared before the court only once last year where Alhaji Sunday stood as surety for his release.

And since then both Alhaji Sunday and chairman Adoo have refused to appear before the court, compelling the court arrest warrant for the party’s regional vice chairman in order to produce his former boss to the court.

The arrest warrant was issued last week while the case adjourned to September 20.

When Starr News contacted Alhaji Sunday, he said he was not aware that a warrant had been issued for his arrest

“I’m not aware they have issued a bench warrant for me so I’m in Accra doing the party work. I have done my best and chairman Adoo was awarded contract for him to get money to pay the debt so that’s my efforts, so they are issuing bench warrant for what,” he wondered.

He said as a regional leader of the party he has put much efforts to ensure this matter is resolved and downplay the relevance of the court’s verdict to issue the arrest warrant.

“I told the president and they even gave him contract so he is now coming; Chairman Adoo too is in Accra looking for money. They have given award letter. That’s why the last time when he was arrested, I went in and consulted the party and went in for bail for him.

“I told the guy (farmer) what we are going to do for him to get his money, so we do what we can do and then chairman Addo was awarded contract about GH2.2bn,” Alhaji Sunday disclosed.