EOCO officers had police powers to arrest Baffour Awuah – Benjamin Aidoo
by Miss Naa · MyNewsGh.comPress Secretary at the Office of the Attorney General Benjamin Alpha Aidoo says authorised officers of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) have the powers of the police when carrying out their duties.
Speaking during a discussion on the confrontation involving Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah and EOCO officers, Mr Aidoo said concerns about the manner of an arrest should not be used to undermine the work of investigative agencies.
“Under section 18 of the EOCO Act, officers of the EOCO, authorised officers of the EOCO have all the powers of the police,” he said on New Day on TV3.
He acknowledged that the scene involving Mr Awuah and the EOCO official was untidy but rejected the suggestion that this automatically made the arrest unlawful.
“I can agree that the whole scene was untidy. In fact, the woman, to some extent, even put herself in harm’s way,” he said.
“But the untidiness of the scene does not mean that the whole process was unlawful and that it was an unlawful arrest.”
Mr Aidoo also defended the decision by the EOCO officers to withdraw from the scene rather than escalate the confrontation.
He said the officers made a strategic operational decision to de-escalate the situation after assessing the circumstances.
“I want to commend the EOCO officers for making the right decision, looking at the temperature of the situation and making a strategic operational decision to retreat, to de-escalate,” he said.
He added that using force could have produced a different outcome.
“Because if they had replied with force, we never know how this could have ended,” he said.
Source: MyNewsGh.com
Thanks for reading from MyNewsGH as a news publishing website from Ghana. You are free to share this story via the various social media platforms and follow us on; Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram etc.