President should have fired them all ? Bagbin

Minority leader, Alban Bagbin has taken president Kufuor to task for not sacking the country?s top security officials over the Yendi conflict.

Bagbin who is from northern Ghana himself, said the president should not have waited for officials of the national security apparatus to resign or be urged to resign over the killing of the Ya-Na and many others on March 26.

He told Ghana News Agency that if the president had fired the officials, he would have stamped his authority over the negligence of the public office holders in their duties.

The minority leader, also MP for Nadowli-North said the assassination of a king was of such gravity that the security network of the country could not escape blame.

Hon. Bagbin said, ?My contact with a whole lot of people in the area and several reports indicate that the Bureau of National Investigations and the Police in Tamale could not claim to be unaware of the plot. Even the then minister of the Interior, Alhaji Alhassan Yakubu and who is the MP for Yendi kept on denying media reports and said that there was peace in the area while the fighting was going on.?

?If after the three-man Commission?s investigations and those who would either be fired or interdicted were absolved from any wrongdoings, negligence or complacency, they could be reinstated and even promoted or given another office.

As it is now, it is necessary for those being called upon to step aside for the Justice Wuaku Commission to its work without interference from any quarters whatsoever, to do so, so that at the end no lingering doubts would be left behind about the transparency of the investigations,? Bagbin noted.

Since the Yendi conflict broke, Ghana?s security apparatus has been shaken to the core. The Interior Minister was the first to resign over the issue, followed by the Director of the BNI whose exit is still not clear as to whether it was a voluntary resignation or a dismissal, and lately, the national security chief, General Joshua Hamidu yielded to pressure to resign his position for his complicity in the conflict.