Gbevlo-Lartey was too gung-ho – Kweku Baako

One of the major cons of Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, former National Security Coordinator, was his activism and open style approach to operations, according to the Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr.

According to Kweku Baako, Gbevlo-Lartey’s penchant to engage in media war and respond to every issue that came up in the media as far as his outfit was concerned, was uncharacteristic of a National Security Capo.

Reacting to the dismissal of Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd), as National Security Coordinator, Kweku Baako averred on Wednesday’s edition of ‘Kokrokoo’ on Peace FM that even though the National Security capo might have performed to the best of his abilities, “I have a problem with his activist profile of operation”.

Government, through the Information and Media Relations Ministry, issued a statement on Tuesday, indicating that Mr. Yaw Donkor of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) has been appointed to replace Col. Gbevlo-Lartey effective May 12, 2014.

The statement, signed by the sector Minister, Mahama Ayariga, also said that Col. Gbevlo-Lartey will be re-assigned to a yet-to-be named designation.

Kweku Baako said: “He has done his bit but for me his problem was the activist open approaches; taking part in public debate, arguing with people on almost every issue that came up. That for me was a lapse. How many of the former security operators were responding to issues on air. The worse was the Legon toll booth demolition; which was totally inappropriate. I won’t also say that these are the reasons the president has asked him to move on; I don’t have the facts but he was becoming a problem for many sections of the public in terms of his approach to some of these things unlike the previous national security operators.”

Kweku Baako was however hopeful that Gbevlo-Lartey’s successor, Yaw Donkor, will not be engaging in any media war because of his quiet nature.

“Mr Yaw Donkor is the quiet type and I can clearly see in my mind’s eye that he will not be the activist-talking type; that is not his nature,” he mentioned.