Claims by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, that Ghana is the second highest country that contributes fighters to ISIS in Libya, smacks of mischief, Frank Annor Dompreh, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, has said.
According to him, Mr Ablakwa is only seeking to create fear and panic among Ghanaians with his claims.
Mr Ablakwa said at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, October 10 that: “Rather worrying for Ghana, we are considered to be among the second highest category of 50 – 100. This has been explained by the Attorney-General’s Office in Libya to mean between 50 to 100 Ghanaian migrants in Libya have been identified as active frontline fighters of ISIS in Libya.”
The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu also expressed more worry as he indicated that Ghanaian ISIS fighters were involved in abductions and other grave criminal activities.
“A special enquiry found out that kidnapping was done by Islamic State foreign fighters from Ghana, Turkey and Tunisia,” he said.
But reacting to the development in a radio interview with Accra based Class FM on Tuesday, Mr Dompreh, who is also MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri said: “We thought that as a responsible opposition, things bothering on security, it is important we all thread with caution. Let me say that the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and for that matter the government, is fully aware of this. We have done enough checks at the Ministry and the Ministry is already aware. What is important is that the Ministry is conducting an investigation into the matter and so for anybody to allege that the Ministry is aware and is not doing anything about it is neither here nor there.”
He added:“It is also important for us to state among other things that we haven’t seen the said report, it is also being alleged that some Ghanaians have been mentioned, but that has not been proven; the authenticity of these Ghanaians cannot be proven at this stage.
“In August 2015, regarding the report that a KNUST student has joined an ISIS group, we were then in the Minority, we behaved responsibly, we never rushed to the media to throw this thing out to cause unnecessary fear and panic. What we did was to report to the security agencies to conduct investigations.
“But they are clearly creating mischief and indulging in fomenting mischief because if a report has been put out there by another Republic of which its authenticity has not been proven, all you need to do as a responsible opposition or Minority, is to report this matter to the state agencies for investigations to be conducted.”
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