Ghana\u2019s President, John Dramani Mahama, has removed his under-fire National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, from office.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama has made changes at the National Security Council Secretariat,\u201d Information and Media Relations Minister, Mahama Ayariga, announced in a terse statement released on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
But, the former Army Officer will continue to hold the fort as National Security Chief until May 12, 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Yaw Donkor, BNI Director has been appointed Acting National Security Coordinator,\u201d Tuesday\u2019s official statement said.<\/p>\n
The Minister\u2019s statement named \u201cMr. Pious Awelinga as the Acting Director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a meeting with Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo Lartey, the President commended and thanked him for his loyalty and dedicated service to the State,\u201d Mr. Ayariga\u2019s statement. \u201cHe will be assigned to other duties after his well-deserved leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey\u2019s removal came over a month after the former head of 64 Infantry Battalion of the Ghana Armed Forces sparked a blaze of public anger after he ordered the demolition of a toll booth under construction at the Okponglo entrance of the University of Ghana, Legon.<\/p>\n
Hours after the demolishing exercise, Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey went on radio to defend the removal of the toll booth, calling the uncompleted structure a \u201cpublic nuisance\u201d.<\/p>\n
Although some Ghanaians supported his action, others, including officials of the University, condemned the demolishing exercise as \u201cunlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n
On March 25, 2014, a group of concerned Ghanaians sent a signed petition to President John Mahama, asking him to remove Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey from office.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you are aware, around 1.30 a.m. on February 18, 2014, the National Security Coordinator along with some other armed men came to the University of Ghana campus and demolished a toll booth and a Security Post under construction,\u201d the petition said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe National Security Coordinator subsequently admitted on various radio stations that he ordered the demolition and attempted to defend his actions by citing \u201ctraffic overflow\u201d at the University entrance (Stadium). The demolition exercise took place without prior notice to the University management.\u201d<\/p>\n
The petition said, the demolition exercise \u201cgenerated a considerable sense of insecurity both within and outside the University as people are uncertain what will happen next in cases of traffic overflow or any other situation that may be deemed to be a nuisance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be assured that we will not have to live in fear of reprisals should the government, or national security apparatus consider any other matter to be a nuisance in future. We are of the view that discourse is a more preferable option to settling disputes than night-time attacks, most certainly in a matter involving traffic overflow.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added, \u201cWhile we concede that the implementation of the tolling exercise may have been inconvenient to some motorists and members of the public, and that the University could have better managed both the public education and implementation of the exercise, we still believe that the demolition exercise was neither the legal, nor the wisest way to resolve any disagreements.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Mahama\u2019s predecessor, the late John Mills appointed Lt Col. Gbevlo-Lartey as National Security Chief in January 2009.<\/p>\n
Following President Mills\u2019 death in July 2012, his deputy, John Mahama became President in line with Ghana\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n
John Mahama contested Presidential elections in December 2012 and was elected Ghana\u2019s fourth President under the nation\u2019s fourth Republican Constitution.<\/p>\n
Although President Mahama had previously made some changes to his team of security chiefs, Lt. Col. Gbevlo Lartey was never touched until Monday\u2019s statement announced that he is to leave office on May 12, 2014.<\/p>\n
By his removal, Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey becomes the second National Security Chief to have been sacked since January 2008.<\/p>\n
On January 12, 2008, President John Agyekum Kufuor sacked Mr. Francis Poku as National Security Coordinator and Minister for National Security.<\/p>\n
A government statement signed by Ambassador D.K Osei, Secretary to the President, extended the President\u2019s deepest gratitude to Mr. Poku for his immense contribution to the stability and development of the country during his tenure as National Security Co-ordinator and Minister of National Security.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By: Richard Dela Sky\/ Citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ghana\u2019s President, John Dramani Mahama, has removed his under-fire National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, from office. \u201cHis Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama has made changes at the National Security Council Secretariat,\u201d Information and Media Relations Minister, Mahama Ayariga, announced in a terse statement released on Tuesday. But, the former Army Officer will continue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[43,38,17],"class_list":["post-15538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-foresight-medical-center","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-wassa-akropong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}