Gov’t To Send 2015 US Military Pact To Parliament For Ratification

The government has served notice that it is taking the Military Cooperation Agreement it entered into with the United States in 2015 to Parliament for ratification.

This comes after the Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul disclosed that Ghana did not have a copy of the 2015 military agreement.

The 2015 agreement was signed by former Foreign Affairs Minister Hanna Tetteh.

Reacting to the development on Accra based Joy FM, the Minority Chief whip Muntaka Mubarak said it is the prerogative of the government to do that.

He said so far as he is concerned based on the ruling of the Supreme Court on the GITMO two case, “we [Ghana] did not have any [military] agreement” with the United States in 2015.

“…Nobody can hold it against our country because our Supreme Court has made it very clear [that] all those agreement needed to be certified by parliament, so if they are bringing it that’s well,” he said.

That notwithstanding, he stated that the Minority is going to hold it to the strictest of scrutiny.

On Friday, March 23, a one-sided parliament ratified the 2018 controversial defence cooperation agreement between Ghana and the US.

It comes after the Minority side stormed out of the Law Chamber Friday evening, leaving the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs to rubberstamp the pact late in the night before Parliament rose for recess.

The agreement was brought before the House for consideration and ratification after the joint-committee on Defence and Interior, Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of Parliament gave it a greenlight.

This is despite massive public protest against the deal which many including the largest opposition described as “dangerous” and a sale of Ghana’s sovereignty.

The Government of Ghana, according to a leaked document, has approved the agreement with the US to set up a military base in Ghana and also allow unrestricted access to a host of facilities and wide-ranging tax exemptions to the United States Military—a claim the government of Ghana and the US denied.

Meanwhile, Pressure group, Economic Freedom Fighters, has called on Ghanaians to rise up and reject in unison the 2018 military agreement Ghana has just signed with the United States of America.

Addressing the press conference, the leader the group Ernesto Yeboah urged Ghanaians to pour out onto the streets in protest of what he termed neocolonialism.

“Power and authority resides in [us] the people. The sovereignty of this country exists because of us,” he said, adding: “We have called on the people that power resides in their hands [and] that they should rise up.”

Source: Starrfmonline.com