Pressure group, OccupyGhana, has asked President Akufo-Addo to send back the two GITMO detainees since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) kicked against their stay in Ghana when they were in opposition.
According to a member of Occupy Ghana, Nana Sarpong Agyemang Badu, although the previous Mahama-led administration granted the two former terror suspects refugee status, the current government must expatriate them.
“Send them back to the US as the NPP in opposition kicked against the Mahama-led administration in opposition on their stay in Ghana,†Nana Sarpong noted in an interview on Adom FM.
“The NPP spoke against it strongly in opposition and now that they’re in power, they should send the GITMO 2 back to where they came from†he stressed.
Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey announced yesterday in parliament that the 2 GITMO detainees have been granted refugee status and are now the responsibility of Ghana government.
She said there was no discussion of an exit plan between Ghana and the US which meant that immediately their stay expired, the US government is not obliged to take them back.
"All obligations relating to the two suspects have now become the responsibility of Ghana", she explained amidst murmurs from the MPs.
She further revealed that the GITMO two were granted refugee status by the previous NDC government with the proof of a letter dated July 23, 2016.
Supreme Court's ruling on GITMO 2
Meanwhile, in 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the agreement signed by former President John Mahama's government with the United States to accept two Guantanamo Bay detainees into the country was unconstitutional.
The two detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, from Yemen, were admitted into the country in 2016.
Their arrival sparked a public debate as negotiations on the admission of the GITMO two, who had been detained for 14 years by the US government over their links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, were shrouded in secrecy.Â
The Court stated that though the president is mandated to enter into international agreements on behalf of the country, he is enjoined to ratify such agreements in Parliament which were not done in this matter, hence the decision.
Also in the court’s verdict, the government was asked to send the agreement to Parliament for ratification or have the two detainees sent back to the US.
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