Nigeria Provides Security For Kufuor ?

INCREASING claims of threats to the John Kufuor administration in Ghana may have prompted the country's request for security support from Nigeria.

Presidency sources have confirmed to The Guardian on Sunday that a team of Nigerian secret service officials has been dispatched to Ghana to lend support to the security of President Kufuor and his new administration.

The team is led by an official who hails from one of the Southwest states of Nigeria.

A battle of wits between the incumbent president and his predecessor, Jerry Rawlings, has led to fears that the Kufuor administration was under threat.

Rawlings who first seized power in 1979 returned to power in 1981 shortly after handing over power to a civilian administration.

He ruled Ghana for nearly two decades before stepping down last January after Kufuor won a presidential election.

Presidency sources noted that a key SSS official was initially dispatched to Ghana to serve as Kufuor's chief security detail co-ordinating operations and men involved in the personal security of the president.

He was later detailed to remain in the background and train and assist a Ghanaian finally picked to handle that job.

It was learnt that the latter option was adopted for the sake of national pride and to forestall protest that might follow if it became public knowledge that a Nigerian was in charge of President Kufuor's personal security.

Nigeria has been known to have contributed forces to enforce peace in several warring African countries but this is the first time it is known to have sent in security agents to ensure the protection of a foreign head of state.

The source further stated that the political leadership in Nigeria is interested in the survival of the Kufuor presidency, as its dislodgement would amount to further security threat to the whole sub-region, including Nigeria.

A vacuum was created in the country's security network with President Kufuor's sweeping transfer of virtually all security agents who worked with the Rawlings presidency.

The face-off became rife between the current and former presidents when Kufuor's National Peoples Party-dominated parliament outlawed June 4 as a national public holiday.

June 4 was the anniversary of Rawling's seizure of power in 1979, but a day to the anniversary this year, it was outlawed.

Rawlings was quoted as saying at a June 4 rally organised by his National Democratic Congress to mark the anniversary that the way the Kufuor administration was going could led to a coup.

"Things of this nature can degenerate into hatred and when it does-boom!" Rawlings was quoted as saying.