Irbard dares opposition: Deny Gitmo duo prompts

Security expert Irbard Ibrahim has dared all of Ghana’s opposition leaders to publicly deny they were briefed prior to the resettlement of two former Guantanamo Detention Camp detainees in Ghana.

“Any opposition leader, who says he wasn’t informed, come out and say that: ‘The Americans said nothing to me on the transfer of the Guantanamo pair,’ then we take it from there,” Sheikh Ibrahim dared Tuesday, January 19, 2016, on Accra FM’s morning show, Ghana Yensom.

His comments follow his assertion on Monday on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show that opposition NPP flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo was informed about the arrival of the two – Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby – six months ahead of their arrival in the country.

This assertion has been strongly rebuffed by the spokesperson of the presidential hopeful, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, who insisted Nana Akufo-Addo was not communicated to.

The 2012 presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, at a press conference on Monday, also said he was clueless about what informed the decision of the Government of Ghana to accept the duo, saying he would hold his comments on the matter until he had been briefed.

Sheikh Ibrahim, however, maintained that extensive consultations preceded the agreement to host the suspected terrorists. He said his information was from “high-level international and domestic contacts”.

“Some of the leaders were informed. The Civil Service Organisations (CSOs) that are very loud on certain issues, have you heard them make noise on the matter?” he asked host Chief Jerry Forson, adding: “They haven’t, because there was broad-based consultation. So, I disagree with any leader, who says he wasn’t informed or that Bin Atef and Al-Dhuby were smuggled into the country. Let’s lay the matter to rest, and move on to other pressing national issues.”

“To pretend you know nothing about this, or that Ghanaians are being ambushed, there is a lot of hypocrisy in it,” the peace ambassador for the 2016 elections added.