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General News of Sunday, 10 January 2016

Source: kasapafmonline.com

Gitmo saga: Vote Mahama out if he erred – Amaliba

Lawyer Abraham Amaliba Lawyer Abraham Amaliba

A private legal practitioner and a member of the governing National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) legal team, Abraham Amaliba, is taking no chances for granted defending President John Mahama for heeding to the US’ call to help rehabilitate and integrate two Yemeni nationals cleared of any act of terrorism into the Ghanaian society.

Though a cross-section of the public strongly objects to Ghana’s decision to shelter the two Gitmo Bay detainees, Mr. Amaliba believes that the decision by the President was based on the fact that the Yemeni nationals no longer pose a threat.

He said should anybody has a contrary view to what the President has done, that person has the right to vote him out of government in the November 7 Presidential and Parliamentary polls.

“This is an Executive Presidency. It is not a legislative Presidency. This is not a Prime Minister who must go to Parliament to talk on the issue. This is an Executive Presidency – we have voted him and he takes decisions on our behalf.”

“If you think that what he has done is wrong, you have your thumb next time you vote him out”, he said in an interview on Joy FM’s News File Saturday.

According to him, per the checks conducted by the government, the two Yemeni nationals do no longer pose threat to national security and therefore, it would be suicidal for anybody to conclude that Gitmo Bay detainees are high-risk terrorists.

“I think that we should defer to the superior knowledge of our security agencies. I think that we have the men and women who man our security and there are up to the scratch. In fact, our security is noted to be one of the best in the world when it comes to peacekeeping operations. So clearly, our security agencies considered the capacity of this country before deciding to accommodate the two guys.”

“So, I sitting her will defer to the superior knowledge of our security chiefs than to listen to wayside street analysis on security matter on the Yemeni nationals. According to our security and in line with the US’ assertion, they no longer pose a threat. Our Embassy in the US also did due diligence about the guys before accepting to come into our country.”

He said he did not believe that the government led by President John Dramani Mahama will put any of the citizenry at risk in deciding to help integrate the two Yemeni nationals into the Ghanaian society.

Nonetheless, he said he will not fault Ghanaians for the kind of apprehension being meted out to the government because there was little information to prepare the minds of the citizenry before accepting the Yemeni nationals into their folds.

On Wednesday, January 6, 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration announced that Ghana has accepted a plea from the International Criminal Tribunal to provide shelter for two cleared terrorist suspects of Yemeni origin who were detained in Guantanamo Bay prison by US authorities.

The two are Khalid Mohammed Salih al-Dhuby and Mahmmoud Omar Mohammed Bin Atef.

According to Foreign Affairs Ministry, the two Gitmo detainees were unable to “return to Yemen at the moment and we have indicated our readiness to accept them for a period of two years after which they may leave the country”.