Quit if you are not ready to uphold our laws – Ursula tells Mahama

Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma West, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, has served notice to President John Dramani Mahama, telling him to quit the presidency if he is not ready to uphold the laws of Ghana.

According to Mrs. Ekuful, the actions and inactions of the President is a clear testimony of his breach of the West African country’s Anti-terrorism Act, 2008, in respect of his acceptance of the two cleared Guantanamo Bay terrorists into Ghana for rehabilitation.

She said it is suicidal for President Mahama to flout the laws of Ghana much to the convenience of America, suggesting that the Head of State should be bold enough to tell Washington that he goofed by accepting the two Guantanamo Bay detainees and that he is returning them.

Ghana’s Anti-terrorism Act, 2008, Section 35 (1) bars anyone from being allowed entry into the country if he or she has been found to associate himself or herself with any act of terrorism.

In the opinion of the Ablekuma West lawmaker, once the two Yemeni cleared terrorists are “self-confessed terrorists” who were arrested by America on battlegrounds and detained for fourteen years, it was wrong for the President to have accepted them into the country on humanitarian grounds.

“The law prohibits anyone from coming into the country if he or she has been found to have associated himself or herself with any act of terrorism. The President by his actions has willfully dropped into this country [people] who he knows have engaged in acts of terrorism because they are self-confessed terrorists. They may be low, high or medium risk terrorist or whatever but the fact that they have actually engaged in terrorism, the President should[n't] have brought them in”.

“Their continued stay in this country is a complete breach of our law. The law was passed in 2008 and ignorance of it is no excuse,” she said in an interview on News File on Saturday.

On Wednesday, January 6, 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration announced that Ghana has accepted a plea from the International Criminal Tribunal to provide shelter for two cleared terrorist suspects of Yemeni origin who were detained in Guantanamo Bay prison by US authorities.

The two are Khalid Mohammed Salih al-Dhuby and Mahmmoud Omar Mohammed Bin Atef.

According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the two Gitmo detainees were unable to “return to Yemen at the moment, and we have indicated our readiness to accept them for a period of two years after which they may leave the country”.

But Mrs. Ekuful commenting further also cited the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs, Mark Owen Woyongo and Hannah Tetteh, to have also breached the constitution of the land and wants them together with the President to apologize to Ghanaians and return the two Gitmo detainees to the Americans.

“They should say I’m sorry America, we goofed. We didn’t avert our minds to this – our attention has been drawn to it; please we cannot do it because our laws prohibit it. Why were these people not sent to the US because there is specific legislation barring any such Guantanamo Bay detainees from being sent to the US. American are respecting their law, but they are asking us to flout ours for their convenience. Are we going to allow them to get away with that?”

“If we do, what does that say about the leadership of this country? – Our laws don’t matter. The security of Ghanaians has no consequence because we want to make America, our ally, comfortable so that they will protect their nationals.”

“If the President is not ready to abide by the laws of the land, he should pack bag and baggage and leave.”

“You don’t have to endanger the security of your nationals because you want to show compassion or being a good friend of America. All Americans and their allies are legitimate targets for those who have been embittered by their actions against their nationals who were detained in Guantanamo Bay”.