GITMO 2: Mahama's Interior Minister was against move - Kweku Baako

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kweku Baako Jnr has made some shocking revelations regarding the controversy surrounding the presence of two ex-Gitmo detainees in the country.

Kweku Baako, during a panel discussion on Joy FM's Newsfile programme, Saturday, said the two detainees: Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby even though have been given refugee status, “the entire membership of the refugee board were not involved because it was processed in a very different way in collaboration with the national security”.

In addition, “Bin Atef; the name has changed anyway but for good reasons I won’t mention that name is married to a Morocco national who is pregnant…he was also mentioned to have started a business in Ghana. Al-Dhuby is married to a Yemeni".

He also disclosed that former Deputy Interior Minister in the erstwhile Mahama administration, James Agalga, wrote letters to warn the government against the resettlement of the two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees.

“The ministry of Interior under the Mahama administration advised against acceptance; raising security concerns,” Kweku Baako said.

James Agalga is said to have written letters to the Foreign Affairs Ministry to strongly oppose the resettlement of the two in the country.

But cabinet ignored the advice went into the agreement, Mr Baako said.

Part of the letter as read by Kweku Baako indicated that: “The Ministry of Interior appreciates the move by the United States of America government to resettle the Guantanamo detainees in a third country, but I humbly propose that Ghana is currently not in position to receive the detainees in view of the crucial economic situation that Ghana finds itself in. Besides, the resettlement of the detainees will have political as well as security implication for Ghana”.