The Member of Parliament for Manhyia South, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, says the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been left deeply shaken by the conviction of its Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi.

Speaking on The Point of View on Monday, July 20, the MP described Wontumi as a pillar of the party’s strongest region, stressing that his imprisonment has hit supporters hard.

“Wontumi is no ordinary person… if anything like this has happened to him, definitely it is not something which is light. We can’t take it lightly at all, and so it’s something which has devastated us.”

Mr Baffour Awuah said the party followed the trial closely and was surprised by the conviction, given what he called the “porous” nature of the evidence presented.

“We are very surprised because if you look at the evidence that was tendered… we want to appreciate the basis upon which a court can convict on evidence which, in our view, was very porous.”

He noted that even the judge acknowledged the absence of direct evidence, and the party is now waiting for the full written judgment to understand how the court arrived at its decision.

“We want to see how the judge evaluated the evidence and came to the conclusion that she has come to. If the record of proceedings we have is anything to go by, we think there has been a travesty.”

His comments follow the Accra High Court’s decision to jail Wontumi for unlawfully assigning mineral rights and facilitating illegal mining on Akonta Mining Limited’s Samreboi concession. Wontumi was handed 20 years’ imprisonment, to run concurrently, while Akonta Mining Limited was fined 15,000 penalty units on each count.