{"id":389871,"date":"2018-01-09T06:01:27","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T06:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=389871"},"modified":"2018-01-09T05:41:06","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T05:41:06","slug":"peaceful-gitmo-2-have-vindicated-mahama-govt-ablakwa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/01\/peaceful-gitmo-2-have-vindicated-mahama-govt-ablakwa\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Peaceful’ Gitmo 2 have vindicated Mahama gov’t – Ablakwa"},"content":{"rendered":"
Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, believes the incident-free stay of the two former Guantanamo Bay detainees vindicates the Mahama government’s decision to enter into the agreement with the United States of America to host them.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Eyewitness News<\/strong>, Mr. Ablakwa said the firestorm generated in response to the agreement, including fears of the terror attacks were alarmist.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”BMKKDXoZ1K6xQuwNpOR8IGKDiv2XabZy”]”There hasn\u2019t been any of these situations that critics of our administration at the time put out against us. In hindsight, it is clear that due diligence was carried out and these two are not harmful,” he said.<\/p>\n The two detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, who were in detention for 14 years after being linked with terrorist group Al-Qaeda, were brought to Ghana in 2016, for a period of two years, which expired on January 6, 2018.<\/p>\n The move was criticized by many observers including the then-in-opposition New Patriotic Party, who described the two as a security threat despite assurances to the contrary by the US.<\/p>\n The current Information Minister, Mustapha Abdul Hamid, at the time, argued that central to the Jihadi ideology is the assertion that a friend of your enemy is also your enemy, hence, though Ghana may have received them out of generosity, in the mind of a Jihadist, Ghana becomes a legitimate target for attacks<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n He also said the government at the time was ignorant about radical Islam ideologies.<\/p>\n But after the change in power, the NPP government\u00a0had a legitimate opportunity\u00a0to send the two Yemeni packing.<\/p>\n