As the controversy surrounding the Guantanamo detainees rages, more voices have joined the calls on government to come clear on the issue.
The latest to join this call is the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council.
The council is made up of various church leaders including Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah, Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah, Rev. Paul Frimpong Manso and Most Rev. Charles Agyin Asare.
[contextly_sidebar id=”NvV3tgLwWXMkQVVUIcpdOqUsGNoaUbgk”]In a statement issued in Accra, it stated that Ghana will not benefit in anyway by hosting the freed terror suspects and demanded their return.
The General Secretary of the Council, Apostle Samuel Yaw Antwi further told Citi 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.”
Meanwhile the Ghana Union of Professional Students (GUPS) has described the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration’s decision to receive the two former detainees as reckless.
“The Union is disappointed in the executive arm of government for taking a decision that does not serve the interest of students and Ghanaians at large. At a time when students have to grapple with high cost of tuition, and payment of utility bills, we believe government was ill-advised and plainly oligarchic in handling this sensitive matter that exposes students to risk,” the group noted in a statement signed by its President,Elorm Mawuli-Kwawu.
Mr. Mawuli-Kwawu also advised all students and Ghanaians at large to be cautious since in his view, the country’s security had been compromised by government’s move.
“The Union condemns this ill action of the executive arm of government and advises all students to be security conscious and be on red alert as public safety is not assured because the two ex-detainees are described by the Pentagon and New York Times as men who pose high and medium risk to society.”
Two Guantanamo bay detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby had been in detention for 14 years, after being linked with terrorist group Al-Qaeda.
However, a US multi-agency review undertaken at the start of the President Obama administration decided both men posed minimal risk to national security and ought to be transferred. The two had chosen to be transferred to Ghana.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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