The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and the host of The Point of View on Channel One TV, Bernard Avle, engaged in a heated exchange over a bilateral agreement between the government of Ghana and the United States of America (USA) recently disclosed by President John Dramani Mahama.

During the Wednesday, September 17, 2025, edition of the show, the host questioned the failure of the government to seek parliamentary approval in its decision to accept West African nationals deported from the US.

Citing a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2017 on the case of the GITMO two, the host pointed out that the decision by the Mahama government was a clear violation of Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution.

“Let’s be clear here, in the two Yemenis from Guantanamo Bay case, some people took the matter to court, and I think the Supreme Court held that whatever name given, when two countries come up with an arrangement that places obligations on both of them, whether you call it a treaty, a contract, it requires ratification. It was a majority decision, only one person dissented,” he stated.

“So, I am a bit surprised you are saying it was an MoU, it means that it ought not to have gone to Parliament. The judgement was very clear on the Guantanamo 2; that Article 75 was violated,” he stated while quoting the constitutional provision.

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In response, the minister, despite conceding to the host, said the matter will be put before Parliament once it is elevated from an MoU to an agreement.

“I agree with you, and that is why I said at the press conference that I held a couple of days ago that when this is elevated beyond an MoU and it becomes a full agreement, we will go to Parliament under Article 75 and have it ratified. At this point, it is just a loose understanding. It is an MoU,” he stated.

Despite the minister’s clarification, the host pointed out that the said MoU is already in force as some of the persons deported by the USA have already been brought into Ghana.

“You’ve brought 14, you are bringing 40 more, how can you enforce something you call a loose agreement?” he quizzed.

The minister, however, sought to normalise his concern, stating that he had inherited several MoUs which were never sent to Parliament for ratification.

When the host maintained his position on the matter, the minister disclosed that the Attorney General had given the green light on the subject.

“It is not an oversight because we sought the Attorney General’s advice. It was discussed in a cabinet meeting, and the Attorney General’s advice and his counterpart, the Attorney General on the US side, also said that, look, this is an MoU. MoUs do not require ratification,” he said.

In response to the revelation, Bernard Avle bluntly stated that the Attorney General was wrong in his advice in the face of the Supreme Court’s judgement.

“Then the Attorney General is wrong because the judgement is clear. I can read it,” he said.

Samuel Ablakwa then shot back at the host by questioning his competence in law against the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine.

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“Oh, you know better law than the Attorney General?” he scoffed.

“At least the law is there for us to read, unless the English explanation to what the Supreme Court said is different,” the host shot back and went on to read the judgement of the Supreme Court in 2017.

In June 2017, Ghana's Supreme Court declared an executive agreement, which allowed transfer of two Yemeni detainees from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay (GITMO) to Ghana, unconstitutional under Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution.

The Supreme Court ruled that the agreement required parliamentary ratification as an international treaty.

The court stopped short of ordering expulsion of the two detainees who were already in the country but affirmed the process was flawed.

President Mahama, during a media encounter on September 15, 2025, explained that the US approached Ghana to host deportees from unstable home countries, and Ghana agreed to take in West Africans due to visa-free travel within the ECOWAS region.

The president emphasised that the decision to receive the persons involved was a humanitarian gesture rather than a transactional deal.

The president also revealed that 14 deportees, mostly Nigerians and one Gambian, had already arrived in Ghana and were facilitated back to their home countries, with no intention of resettlement.

However, critics of the government’s decision and the agreement with the US, have likened the situation to the GITMO case and have accused the government of violating the Constitution.

GA/VPO

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