By William
Yaw Owusu
Friday February
02, 2018
It
is turning out that the two suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists from Yemen, who were
deported to Ghana from the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay on the
orders of former President Barack Obama, have agreed to leave the country.
They
reportedly reached an agreement with the government of Ghana to send them to a
third unnamed country.
Charles
Owiredu, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, who made
the disclosure on Joy FM, said the
two supposed Al-Qaeda terrorists - Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid
Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby - had informed the Akufo-Addo administration to send
them to a different country, and added that the negotiations regarding their
preferred country had been ongoing.
“So
of course, we sought their consent before these negotiations were done,” the
deputy minister said.
“Per
the laws, the 1951 Convention and 1957 Protocol on Refugees, you would need
their consent.
“And
so now, you have their consent and they say when you find a country we are
ready to leave..... Not as easy as you put. They are aware that government is
in negotiation with a third country for them to exit.”
Minority Attacks
Last
week, the agreement between the erstwhile Mahama’s National Democratic Congress
(NDC) government and the Obama administration to repatriate the terror suspects
to Ghana resurfaced when the two-year deal expired.
The
opposition NDC, which caused the mess whilst in government, had turned around
to put pressure on the NPP administration to decide the fate of the two
detainees.
In
the ensuing heat, it emerged that the Mahama administration attempted to change
the names of the suspected terrorists and ended up issuing them with Ghanaian passports,
which DAILY GUIDE sources say will
expire in August 2018.
They
were also given wives, allowing them to integrate into the Ghanaian society.
Refugee Status
Majority
leader in parliament and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah
Bonsu, said on radio last week that the Mahama administration surreptitiously
granted the two - who according to US authorities, were Osama Bin Laden’s foot soldiers - refugee status before the
expiry of the two-year agreement.
He
said one of them is married to a Moroccan but had vowed never to go to the Maghreb
country for reasons best know to him.
$300,000
The
majority leader further said that per the agreement, the over $300,000 released
by the Obama administration to Ghana under the deal covered the terrorists up
to the end of the two-year deal signed.
Mr.
Kyei-Mensah Bonsu added that with the expiration of the agreement, the people
of Ghana are the ones footing the bills for the two guys, who the US security
intelligence said are dangerous.
He
said then Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh had created the impression in parliament
that the so-called deal was subject to renewal after two years - which elapsed
about two weeks ago - although the same Mahama administration had secretly
undermined the two-year agreement and granted them refugee status.
Mr.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the NDC government, before altering the agreement, did
not even have the courtesy to include it in the handing over notes to the NPP
government during the transition in early 2017.
Supreme Court Ruling
Last
year, the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the admission of the two suspected
terrorists into the country by the Mahama administration.
A
seven-member panel, presided over by Chief Justice Sophia A.B. Akuffo, by a 6
-1 majority decision, said the two were illegally staying in the country since
the then government allowed them into the country without prior approval by parliament;
and the consequential order of the court was that the NPP government should
within three months submit the agreement for parliamentary consideration and approval
or in default, repatriate the two ex-detainees.
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