{"id":208249,"date":"2016-04-21T06:05:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T06:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=208249"},"modified":"2016-04-21T06:05:23","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T06:05:23","slug":"ghanaians-should-be-angry-at-bni-mustapha-hamid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=208249","title":{"rendered":"Ghanaians should be angry at BNI – Mustapha Hamid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spokesperson for the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Presidential Candidate, Mustapha Hamid, has charged Ghanaians to trigger a\u00a0debate that will lead to reforms in the operations of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).<\/p>\n

According to him, the BNI does not seem to comprehend\u00a0its mandate, saying they have become a tool in the hands of an incumbent\u00a0government to manhandle opposition members and critics of the government.<\/p>\n

In the past two months, the BNI has been involved in a number of\u00a0controversial detentions of individuals tied to the NPP.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”6mRHQzoPtqCoG1C8y9pORMjxUr9qdPwX”]Notably, the\u00a0head of Nana Addo\u2019s security team was held by the BNI for five days<\/a><\/strong><\/span> for his alleged role in the invitation of the three ex-police officers from South Africa. His lawyers claim his rights were abused during the period of detention.<\/p>\n

The BNI also detained one Dr. Edmund Ayo Ani for allegedly circulating photos of Mahindra vehicles, branded in National Democratic Congress (NDC) colours which were supposedly procured for the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).<\/p>\n

In the latest incident,\u00a0the BNI detained the personal photographer and private bodyguard of the NPP flagbearer because according to the party, they refused to fill \u2018Personality profile\u2019 forms at the Bureau.<\/p>\n

BNI afraid of government<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Hamid is of the view that these incidents are proof of the fact the BNI has lost track\u00a0of its mandate, adding that they are under government’s control.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News<\/strong>, he said, \u201cSome BNI people have told lawyers I have spoken to that when these powers-that-be incite\u00a0them to do things, even though they know it is wrong, because they do not have security of tenure and their appointments are at the whims and caprices of those in power, they are afraid and they go along so they can protect their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citizens must show anger<\/strong><\/p>\n

The anger of Ghanaians towards the BNI is necessary\u00a0according to Mr. Hamid, since in his view, the actions of the\u00a0security agency\u00a0embody a slide towards authoritarian governance.<\/p>\n

He thus urged a public debate about the role of the BNI saying,\u00a0\u201cIf we want to consolidate our democracy, we have to have a public debate about the role of the BNI in our affairs… It is important that the Ghanaian people show anger at this slide towards authoritarian governance.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hamid expressed hope that a Nana Addo led government would ensure the BNI stuck to its core mandate. He however added that checking the BNI shouldn\u2019t be left in the hands of a president hence the need for the citizens to spark a debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t leave it the hands of a sane president to want to do the right thing because we cannot always guarantee that we will have sane presidents. That is why I am saying that the public itself should begin a debate now that will get the BNI to do the right thing irrespective of who becomes president.\u201d<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spokesperson for the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Presidential Candidate, Mustapha Hamid, has charged Ghanaians to trigger a\u00a0debate that will lead to reforms in the operations of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI). According to him, the BNI does not seem to comprehend\u00a0its mandate, saying they have become a tool in the hands of an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":46018,"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":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider-1","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208249","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=208249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}