General News of Saturday, 24 March 2018

Source: peacefmonline.com

Ghana-US saga: 'Secret' deal signed by Mahama and Hannah Tetteh brought us this far – NPP MP

Bernard Oko-Boye, MP for Ledzokuku constituency Bernard Oko-Boye, MP for Ledzokuku constituency

Member of Parliament (MP) for Ledzokuku constituency, Dr Bernard Oko-Boye has emphatically stated that Ex-President John Dramani Mahama and his Foreign Affairs Minister, Hannah Tetteh should be blamed if there is any cause for alarm surrounding the Ghana/US military co-operation agreement .

According to him, aside the 1998 agreement, Ex-President John Dramani Mahama and Hannah Tetteh in 2015 secretely signed an agreement with the documents they are condemning today without the concern of any citizen, not even Ministers of their regime.

“How can you[NDC] sign a secret agreement with a foreign body that its soldiers can come here when Ghanaians have no chance to look at it, not even Ministers of their government heard about it”, he said on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ programme.

“This is just a strategy they [members of the NDC] have adopted to paint the government corrupt when they are the cause of our suffering today”, he noted.

Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul has disclosed how the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 1998 and 2015 signed two major joint military agreements with the United States Armed Forces on behalf of Ghana without parliamentary approvals.

Mr. Nitiwul was addressing the media Wednesday at the ministry in Accra to “set the records straight” on an allegation by the minority NDC in parliament and a section of the public that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has agreed with the US Armed Forces to establish a military base in Ghana – precisely at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).



Present was the Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid.

According to him, there is no agreement between the US and Ghana for the establishment of any military base in the country.

Mr. Nitiwul said that there is only an agreement between the Government of Ghana and the Government of the United States of America on defence cooperation, status of the United States Forces and use of agreed facilities.