The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Asiedu Nketia, has stated that the supposed arrest of their Member of Parliament for the Asutifi South Constituency, Alhaji Collins Dauda by the police is a diversionary tactics.

According to him, the arrest was to divert the attention of the nation from some raging issues including the controversial StarTimes issue as well as the struggling cedi.

“There are all these challenges in the economy and when there is a problem they want a diversion. They know that the StarTimes contract is generating a lot of heat so they want some means of diverting the attention of the nation, we refuse to be diverted,” he added in an interview.

Some police officers have stormed the residence of Member of Parliament for Asutifi South, Alhaji Collins Dauda to arrest him.

The incident happened Tuesday dawn at his home in the constituency where the police claim they had orders from above.

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka confirmed this to Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem Tuesday.

He said Collins Dauda was not home when the incident occurred but his family members were left traumatised.

But the police said they invited Collins Dauda to their headquarters in Accra to assist an ongoing investigation into an alleged attack on a resident of Kenyasi.

Speaking to Citi News, the Director General of the Police Public Affairs Directorate, ACP David Eklu, said the police followed standard procedure in the case.

“If they went to his house to invite him I don’t think there was a breach of Parliamentary process as far as inviting members of Parliament to come and answer questions of criminal complaints against them. What I know is that every citizen in this country under the constitution is enjoined to cooperate with lawful agencies in the discharge of our duties.”

“What I also know is that if the Member of Parliament is on his way to Parliament he cannot be arrested. That doesn’t mean that he cannot be invited on phone to come to the Police headquarters or to come to the police to answer questions. He is only assisting in investigations,” he added.

Meanwhile, he Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, on Tuesday warned the Police against such action.

He said on the floor of Parliament that the actions of the police were a clear breach of parliamentary immunity.

“We want the security agencies to be mindful of the fact that the police should not invade the premises of a member of Parliament or appear to be doing so in a manner that will raise unnecessary difficulties for us. We want to put on record that in future, the leadership of the House and the Speaker of the House should be informed of all such needs so that it can be done with the appropriate decency,” he added.