Ghanaians decry transfer of Ex-Guantanamo prisoners to their country

Jan 29, 2016 Ghanaians recently reacted against the transfer of two Yemeni detainees previously held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay to the country.

Many citizens complained that the presence of the detainees in the country may pose a security threat.

Speaking to this effect, Adongo Thomas, a resident of Accra said:

“To me I’m not happy they are in Ghana here anything can happen and if anything happen we are the poor people who will suffer for it they also have way to go by now they have their plane tickets passport and everything so in case if anything happen in Ghana the poor will be facing the trouble and we will suffer a lot so we are not happy with what are leaders have done so far,”

Another citizen, Azoya Philemon said:

“There is a force somewhere pushing the president to do what he’s doing without consulting let me say parliament and if parliament disagree with it which he might not take their decision that is why he just have to do it without the consent of parliament because the western world controls African most than our own decisions,”

In a bid to pacify the brewing tension, President John Mahama insisted that the prisoners posed no threat and would always be monitored.

“We have had several sessions with the Americans. Our people went to Guantanamo and personally interviewed these people and I believed our security is not endangered because they are in our country. What we should fear is not them because we have them under surveillance, what we should fear is somebody who can come in and create havoc that we do not yet know and so our collaboration with the United States of America, the U.K. and France helps us to be able to protect our safety and security of our by being able to access the data base of persons who are suspected and perceived to be terrorists,”