Nine Ghanaians have joined ISIS – Dr. Antwi Danso

Senior fellow at the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso says there are nine Ghanaians currently with Islamist militant group ISIS, and not two as being speculated in the media.

The National Security Co-coordinator, Mr. Yaw Donkor, confirmed last year that two Ghanaians have joined the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS): Nazir Nortei Alema, a 25-year-old graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and another person, identified only as Rafiq.

However, Dr. Antwi Danso in an interview on 3FM’s Sunrise Morning show stated that Ghanaians are creating pockets of terrorism in their own country.

“There are nine Ghanaians in ISIS and not two as being speculated in the media,” he said but would not mention where and who they are as well as where he got his information from.

“We are creating pockets of terrorism in our own country which will come to haunt us if we do not take the right measures. Your Bamba and Azorka boys are fertile grounds for recruitment and are fertile grounds when they want to strike in Ghana.

“If one indiscipline person has entered the country and wants to be friends with those radicals and undisciplined persons whom we are not trying to stop, they will fester.

“There is a lot this country is making and everything is politicized because people want to score political marks and when those of us in the field look at these things, I just laugh.

“We need to be careful about how to understand terrorism and know how to minimize or mitigate their effect when they arise”.

Reacting to the recent terror alert in Ghana Dr. Danso said Ghanaians are causing unnecessary panic but calls for increase in awareness creation.

“No terrorist is interested in Ghana to attack us and I swear that they wouldn’t attack Ghana because of Ghana. They will only attack if and only Ghana’s foreign policy shows inclination towards supporting any of their enemies or example if America is attacking ISIS and we support them with our utterances and give them some of our institutions and other stuff, then they will attack…I think the whole country is causing unnecessary panic”.