Some loyalists of President John Dramani Mahama are pushing for the arrest and detention of a former Constituency Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Michael Omari Wadie.

The issue concerns a photograph in circulation on various social media networks, especially Facebook, in which the picture of a man, who seems to have been ‘photo-shopped’ to look like President Mahama, is seen having sex with a woman at a supposed office.

Though Mr Wadie has denied being the brain behind the picture in circulation, a pro-NDC group, calling themselves Coalition for the Protection of Individual Liberties and Constitutional Rights (COPCOR), claimed “the said picture has been doctored by a former Constituency Chairman and former National Chairman aspirant of the NPP by name Michael Omari Wadie.”

However, a statement issued in Accra yesterday called for the arrest of the NPP man.

The statement, which was signed by Ransford Vanni-Amoah, Abraham Ferguson Jnr, Ali Dawud, Charles Agyemang, Ernest Gyamfi and one Theresa Awuni said, “We are calling on the Ghana Police Service, Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the National Security to call Omari Wadie for further questioning and investigation and if possible, prosecute him.” It is not clear the police, BNI and the National Security would take up the issue since Omari Wadie has not received any police invitation.

But leadership of the NDC group indicated their readiness to “provide the security services with concrete evidence when called upon to assist” while calling on the Christian Council of Ghana, Muslim Community and all well-meaning Ghanaians to condemn what they described as a ‘criminal act’ since according to them “it is not in the interest of national unity and cohesion”.

The group has also asked the NPP as a party to condemn this act and disassociate the party from such an act, as a proof that they do not endorse such actions from a person they suspect to be one of their own. Mr Wadie also issued a counter statement in which he made an outright denial of being the manufacturer of the picture in question.

“I vehemently refute the allegations and state categorically that I am not the source of the images,” he noted. Apart from that, the former NPP Chairman for the Ayawaso West Wuogon insisted “I am not the camera man who filmed them, I have never been to President Mahama’s office or the location where this was filmed, I am not an I.C.T expert and I am not a graphic designer or animation expert.”

He suspected the picture in circulation was an insider job; emanating from the NDC itself and, therefore, asked for his name to be disassociated with it, insisting that “if truly this is edited and meant to embarrass the President, we should just identify the girl and catch the real culprits behind this by tracing their Internet Protocol address.

“We should all condemn all such distasteful and sordid action in our body politics”, reiterating his position, “I am not responsible for the picture be it original or edited; I refute and debunk the allegations the NDC has levelled against me,” he added.