Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Friday, January
22, 2016
Popular legal practitioner Ace Ankomah, has rubbished President John
Mahama’s defence for accepting the two hardcore terrorists on the orders of the
United States government.
Mr. Ankomah said the president created the impression as if he (Mr.
Mahama) was the one personally hosting the suspected terrorists - Mahmud Umar
Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby - and not the people of
Ghana, even though he accepted them on behalf of the country.
Inconsistencies
He also pointed out the inconsistencies in the defence put up by the
president and his Foreign Minister, Hannah Tetteh, on the issue and said the
whole deal should have been approved by Parliament.
“President Mahama says: ‘This is a matter of security, it’s not an
international treaty, and so it’s not something that we were required to take
to parliament and that’s why it didn’t go to parliament.’But in the words of
the Foreign Minister: ‘At the request of the US Government we have also agreed
to accept two detainees of Yemeni origin who were detained in Guantanamo but
who have been cleared of any involvement in any terrorist activities and are
being released.’”
Article 75
Using Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution to make a point, Lawyer
Ankomah said it says that all “treaties, agreements and conventions” entered
into/executed by the president (ostensibly on Ghana’s behalf) will require
parliamentary ratification before they will have binding effect on Ghana.
“When the President, in Hanna Tetteh’s words, ‘agreed’ at the
request of the US government to accept these persons into Ghana, he was acting
within the power conferred on him by Article 75,” adding “he was not acting in
his personal name or capacity.”
Obligation
“It is Ghana (not him) that now has the obligation to keep these men
here for at least two years. There may not be a treaty, but there is an
agreement, whether or not it is in writing,” Mr Ankomah stressed.
He underscored, “The president appears to argue that once there is
no treaty or formal ‘agreement’ relating to the men, there is nothing to seek
and obtain parliamentary ratification for.
“That argument suggests that a government can simply by-pass Article
75 by not reducing such agreements into writing, and then there would be no
need for the mandatory parliamentary ratification.
“That would drive horses and chariots through the concept of
separation of powers, which is captured and enshrined in that Article, and
recognised by Atuguba JSC in Amidu v. Kufuor, that the president has the
prerogative to enter into such agreements/treaties; however any such
agreement/treaty is subject to parliamentary ratification.”
Public Uproar
There has been public resentment in the country since the Mahama-led
NDC government announced that two Al-Qaeda foot-soldiers had arrived from
Guantanamo Bay where they spent more than a decade in detention and were to be
hosted by the people of Ghana for the next two years.
The president, in justifying what has turned out to be an unpopular
decision, insinuated that those who were against the hosting of the terrorists
did not have compassion.
In spite of his appeal for compassion, several religious bodies,
including the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Christian Council as well as the
Pentecostal Council and the Sunni Sect in Ghana, have expressed their disgust
at the hosting of the Al-Qaeda terrorists.
The Catholic
Bishops, who have threatened to stage a demonstration over the reckless action,
have described President Mahama’s decision as “wrong and dangerous,” while the
Christian Council has said the men’s presence could endanger national security.
“We, the members
of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference have received news of the transfer of
two former Guantanamo Bay prisoners, namely, Mahmoud Omar Mohammed Bin Atef (36
years) and Khalid Shayk Mohammed (34 years), to Ghana with great distress and
sadness and wish to call on our government to return them immediately,” they
said in a statement recently.
British Envoy
In a related development, the British High Commissioner, Jon
Benjamin, has admonished Ghanaians to be on the look-out as the ex-Guantanamo
Bay detainees continue to stay in the country.
“It takes a few people to
create carnage and no one should be complacent. We should be very vigilant
because it’s a real threat to us all,” he told an Accra-based radio station - Live FM - yesterday.
“This is essentially a bilateral issue between US, and Ghana. Here
we are in January, the election here is 7th November; we are already in
election season in some sense. What I won’t be doing is allowing anyone to drag
us to make party political points on either side,” Mr Benjamin stated.
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