Send GITMO 2 to where you promised in 2016 - Ade Coker tells Akufo-Addo

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Ade Coker has charged President Akufo-Addo and his party to send the GITMO-2 ex-detainees back to where they promised during the 2016 elections.

“No law in this country is binding NPP to continue keeping the two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees in Ghana. They should stop behaving as if the documents granted them by the past government automatically guarantees their forever stay in the country, not even can a Ghanaian citizen’s passport keep them in the country when the president wants them out of the land”, he said.

He would rather President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo keep to his words irrespective of the report that Ex-President John Mahama has given them refugee status or the amount of money the USA paid to Ghana for their upkeep.

He advised the current government to desist from focusing on the dealings of the past government but rather focus on the future and what they have to offer, since the baton is now in their hand.

He spoke during a panel discussion on UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ programme Tuesday morning.

The Yemenis came to Ghana in January 2016 to stay for two years under a diplomatic agreement as the United States government worked to close down its infamous detention center, Guantanamo Bay, where the suspects lived for 14 years.

Ghanaians were under the impression, the two suspects could be sent back to US or another country if the government was no longer interested in keeping them here.

But it has emerged government’s options have been narrowed because of a decision taken by the previous NDC government.

The Mahama government granted them refugee status and therefore Ghana is obliged to keep them in the country if they fear to live in another.

Ghana is a signatory to UN conventions on refugees which protects refugees.

The US government cannot take back the former suspects because the Mahama government failed to agree on exit plans with the superpower, the Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has said.