The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, can be cited for treason vis-à-vis the controversial military agreement between Ghana and the United States government.
“Ladies and gentleman, Honorable Nitiwul, who is pushing for the ratification of the agreement could well be cited for treason for attempting to subvert the sovereignty of Ghana,” General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia stated at a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Accra on Thursday, 22 March 2018.
This follows the laying of the before parliament despite public uproar against it.
Ghana’s Cabinet approved the agreement granting access to the U.S. army to use Ghana’s military installations. It also indicated that Ghana has also agreed to bear the cost and take primary responsibility for securing U.S. military facilities in the country.
The news has generated mixed reactions. The Minority wants the agreement revoked while the Majority insists the deal was agreed upon when the current Minority were in power in 1998 and 2015.
However, the NDC believes any move by the Akufo-Addo government to ratify the agreement is tantamount to treason since it has the tendency of giving away the country’s sovereignty on a silver platter.
Mr Nketia, nonetheless said the NDC will not blame the minister because he is acting on the orders of President Nana Akufo-Addo “who appears to have been swayed by an award conferred on him on his recent visit by a U.S. lobby firm called The Whittaker Group”.
He added that the “recent comment by the U.S. envoy to Ghana describing President Akufo-Addo as more visionary than recent Ghanaian leaders was part of a carefully orchestrated and well-rehearsed strategy to cajole Nana Addo into signing away the sovereignty of our dear country”.
According to him, existing protocols between the two countries are enough, thus, making the latest agreement needless.
The NDC, he said, will scrap the agreement if it wins the 2020 elections.
Source: classfmonline.com
