Mahama under pressure to relocate ex- GITMO detainees

Pressure is mounting on President Mahama’s administration to reverse its decision to accept two ex-detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison in Ghana.

Members of Parliament and other prominent personalities in the country have since the news broke last week been mounting intense pressure on President Mahama to relocate the detainees since they pose threat to Ghana’s security.

The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni Frimpong said “We are of the strongest view that, the inadequate public consultation and broader consensus building by government is exposing our nation and the entire sub-region to terrorist attack, and must be reversed.”

The latest to join calls for President Mahama to reverse his decision on the ex-detainees is the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council.

A statement issued by the council said “we are indeed shocked and surprised what informed this decision of government to host these former detainees, described by US Congress and its citizens as a major national security threat to the United States if allow to stay in and around its borders.”

“We therefore wonder what security considerations Ghana took in Arriving at the decision, if the US with all its powerful and sophisticated security networks is not willing to host them,” statement noted.

“We therefore demand that government as a matter of national security concerns and for future stability of the nation immediately take the needed steps to reverse this decision and send away these terror suspects

According to FoxNews, one of the two prisoners brought from Guantanamo Bay to Ghana, in the person of Bin Atef “is an admitted member of the Taliban and fought for Usama bin Laden, while [the other] Al-Dhuby trained with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.”

The General Secretary of the Council, Apostle Samuel Yaw Antwi further told Oman News, the decision to accept these detainees poses a major security threat to Ghanaians since “people connected to them may want to come to the country to follow up on them.”

“Imagine something happens to these two people while they are here within the two years that has been quoted. What are going to be implications for Ghana? These are the issues that we need to look at and we see that as a risk. Their associated may come looking for them, anything might happen to them and will Ghana be exonerated? We don’t believe their being here will be in our supreme interest.”

Story by: Michael Creg Afful

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