BNI Is Not Above The Law...Yet We Look On Sheepishly

The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) has come under severe bashing for the method they used in arresting a former constituency chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Michael Omari Wadie. The BNI picked up Omari Wadie immediately he arrived from the United Kingdom (UK) at the Kotoka International Airport for his alleged involvement in the posting of doctored images of President John Dramani Mahama on his facebook page. According to Omari Wadie, he was not even given the chance to go home to see his family or even speak to the one who was coming to pick him up at the Airport; but was rather seized and detained in a hot mosquito infested room at the premises of the bureau. Even though he has been released, many have condemned the �Rambo Style� method the BNI used in arresting him. Contributing to panel discussions on Peace FM�s morning show �Kokrokoo� with host Kwami Sefa-Kayi, Central Regional Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwamena Duncan, has slammed BNI for not going by the constitution and the laws of the country and for thinking that they are above the law. According to him, per the laws of the country, no one is to be detained more than 24 hours and immediately the person is arrested, he is entitled to call his lawyers but Mr Omari Wadie was not given that opportunity. �He was detained for more than 24 hours� The law says a person who is arrested or detained shall be informed in a language that he understands of the reasons for his arrest, detention and of his right to a lawyer of his choice� but he was arrested, stripped naked and thrown into a mosquito invested room. Individuals take the laws into their own hands and we sit as a country and look on. You as an institution seeking to correct a criminal act, you engage in what is offensive to the law� he said curtly. According to Kwamena Duncan who is also a member of the Communication team of the NPP, it is important to make the law a supreme guide to everybody and nobody has the right not to abide by it (law) but �unfortunately in this case that was not what happened and we look on sheepishly.� Kwamena Duncan who was obviously not happy with the action of the bureau, added: �are we as a country going to sit down and look on? Is there not going to be a way to stop them and tell them the law is supreme? Even if the person really committed the crime, you need to go by the law of telling him what he has done and informing him of his right to call his lawyer�but none of this was done. BNI must come to the understanding that no institution is bigger than the law�.