Francis Poku In J'burg not London

The dismissed National Security Minister is in South Africa for medical treatment. Speaking on Accra-based radion station, JoyFM, this morning, Mr. Frank Agyekum, deputy Information Minister said Mr. Francis Poku has gone to South Africa for a routine medical treatment of cataract. He denied earlier reports that said Mr. Poku has flown to the UK to cool off following mediation between the former minister and President Kufuor by the Asantehene, Osei Tutu II.

Mr. Agyekum said, he is surprised to hear that Mr. Poku has flown to the UK. According him, Mr. Poku had planned his trip to South Africa long before his dismissal and the subsequent furore at his residence last Wednesday when a large number of policemen stormed the place. The media reported that incident as a house arrest, but the government described it as a debriefing exercise. According to journalists who reported the house arrest, they picked it from some of the policemen who stormed Mr. Poku’s house. But Mr. Agyekum disagreed with the reports, arguing that if indeed, Mr. Poku was under house arrest, there was no way the journalists would have been allowed into his house that early in the morning.

While admitting that he does not know how Mr. Poku left the country, Mr. Agyekum also said that he is not aware if Mr. Poku is in the UK.He said there are no restrictions on the former National Security Minister’s movement and therefore he was free to go anywhere he wishes. On the question of reasons for Mr. Poku’s dismissal, Mr. Agyekum said that just like any other minister the President could hire and fire and that was just what he did in Mr. Poku’s case.Asked if the debriefing exercise announced by government was over, the deputy minister said, he is aware that Mr. Poku has handed over to the new National Security Co-ordinator and insisted that contrary to media reports, Mr. Poku has never been under house arrest.

Meanwhile, the Daily Graphic newspaper issue of today, January 21, 2008, carried a report which said Mr. Poku is in London where he is reported to be ‘cooling off”.The newspaper however reported that, Mr. Poku’s departure cannot be traced at any of Ghana’s entry and exit points. According to the newspaper, citing top security officials, Mr. Poku might have left the country through an unapproved route into a neighbouring country where he might have flown to the UK.

The Daily Graphic also reported that members of Mr. Poku’s family are still in the country. Mr. Francis Poku who joined Ghana’s security services in the 1970s started his career with the then Special Branch, now Bureau of National Investigations (BNI). He was made Accra Regional Commander of the Special Branch before joining the Fraud Squad of the Ghana Police Service.Later, he was transferred to Wa as the Divisional Commander of Police. In 1982, he went into exile in London after the December 31, 1981 overthrow of the Hilla Limann government by Jerry Rawlings.

Mr. Poku returned to Ghana in 2001 and was appointed to the post of National Security Co-ordinator by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government under President J. A. Kufuor and was later elevated to the position of National Security Minister in 2005. Mr. Francis Poku was sacked in the night of Friday, January 11, 2008 by President Kufuor, who immediately assumed the position himself.