The 80 year old retired teacher who was arrested on Thursday for allegedly campaigning against the creation of the Oti Region has been granted bail and is expected to present himself to the police later today [Friday].
The suspect, Edmond Nyarko was granted bail around 10:00pm on Thursday after news went viral about his arrest by Police in Kejebi on the orders of that area’s District Chief Executive, Maxwell Kofi Asiedu.
He was not formally charged.
A son of Mr. Nyarko had told Citi News that his father was arrested for speaking against the creation of the proposed Oti Region and all initial efforts to get him released prove futile.
“We don’t know what crime he has committed. Only the station commander came and told my brother that he is being brought there and detained for speaking against the proposed Oti Region. The Old man is still at Police custody there since morning. We’ve all been there to check on him. The station commander said he cannot do anything about it.”
But the DCE of the area, Maxwell Kofi Asiedu who admitted ordering the arrest of the 80 year-old told Citi News he was arrested for campaigning for the succession of a Western Togoland Country, an act which he said is treasonable.
“He was not campaigning against Oti Region. Rather he was campaigning for a new country, that is why we arrested him. He said if we get the Oti Region, we will not be able to get the Western Togoland country,” the DCE explained.
The suspect, Edmond Nyarko explained to Citi News’ Benjamin Aklama that he was struggling with a young boy who operates his commercial motorbike and was in the process heard saying “No” and that was taken for a “No” campaign against the Oti Region.
He said he has never in his life involved himself in partisan politics and has no reason to do so now.
“I went to get my sales. I gave a motorbike to a young man and last week he failed to come and render my sales to me and as a headmaster of a school, we were vacating yesterday [Thursday] so I went to see him to take my sales before I go to the village. When I went there he was not trying to understand me and he was annoying me. That brought about a struggle and I said the way he was behaving I don’t like. I was like, “No, no, no” to what he was trying to tell me.”
“I was not saying “no” to Oti. Why should I talk about Oti? Oti for what? I don’t have time for that. As a teacher, we were advised in 1997 that you don’t have to go into politics and that has been guiding me. I retired about 19 years now and now in a private school,” he explained.
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By: Benjamin Aklama | citinewsroom.com | Ghana
The post 80-year-old man arrested over Oti Region granted bail appeared first on Citi Newsroom.
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