Foreign Affairs Minister to brief Parliament on Gitmo two

Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister Hanna Tetteh will on Friday, February 19, apprise a closed sitting of Parliament on Ghana’s hosting of the two former detainees of the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

The two Yemenis – Mahmoud Omar Mohammed Bin Atef, 36, and Khalid Shayk Mohammed, 34 – were transferred from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre to Ghana by the United States government.

The presence of the two has generated public discontent as to the safety and security of Ghanaians in relation to their backgrounds as detainees from a known US terrorist detention and correctional facility.

But the US government maintains that the two pose no threat to the safety of Ghanaians.

Two weeks ago, a member of the House raised the issue why it was not pencilled for discussion in the next week’s business statement.

The Speaker Edward Adjaho informed the House that the Clerks at Table had drawn his attention to the issue, waiting to be discussed by the House.

The member in question, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, MP for Manhyia South, quoted Article 75 (1) and (2) of the 1992 Constitution, wondering why the matter was not put on the Business Statement for upcoming week despite its serious nature, to which the Majority Leader Alban Bagbin responded that the issue had not come before the Business Committee.

Many other legislators, mainly from the Minority side, have raised concerns with government’s acceptance of the two Yemenis and have stated that government should have brought the issue, which President John Mahama has said did not include monetary consideration, before the people’s representatives in Parliament.

Source: GNA