Former National Security Coordinator under the John Mahama administration has described as “crazy” an order directing Telecommunication Company to produce the call records of Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga, MyNewsGh.com has filed.
Mr Gbevlo Lartey’s comment follows confusion over whether the court order was for audio recording of the calls of Mr Ayariga or simply his call log.
Mr Gbevlo Lartey who has since left local duties to assume continent level security responsibility was of the opinion that no Telecom Company can record the audio of a subscriber’s conversation to be used against him or her later unless a court of competent jurisdiction had given prior approval for that to be done.
“MTN ordered to do exactly what? Crazy ! SP blues!”, he wrote.
EOCO and the Office of the Special Prosecutor have been investigating Mahama Ayariga for alleged obstruction of investigations and other suspected offences.
The order by the court is to ostensibly unravel the source of the leakage which may have been communicated through the phone. But the NDC MP appears offended by the order and has vowed to challenge the decision, indicating his lawyers have been instructed to do so.
“I will contest Martin Amidu’s court order for my MTN call records. I, Mahama Ayariga, would have gladly personally handed my MTN call records to Mr Martin Amidu, if he had just asked me directly, so he will see that I have never placed a call to Mr Kwasi Gyimah-Asante’s phone. I still do not know who Kwasi Asante-Gyimah is,” the MP said in a statement.
He also urged MTN not to hastily yield to the “overbroad” order of the court in the interest of its customers.
“MTN must be seen to exhaust all legal channels,” Mr. Ayariga added.