It has emerged per documents available to Peacefmonline that the Mahama administration signed one of the precedent agreements with the United States granting them (USA) access into the country to camp its military forces, thus exposing the hypocrisy of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The document - detailing an agreement granting the US military access to use Ghana as a base for staging and deploying its forces among others - sparked public debate with its emergence in the media.
The Minority in Parliament vehemently opposed the deal, describing it as attempts by government to ‘sell out’ the country’s sovereignty to the US. They rejected the MoU laid before parliament last Tuesday recommending that the house ratifies the agreement.
But a one-sided Parliament on Friday night ratified the controversial defence cooperation agreement between Ghana and the US.
However, documents available to Peacefmonline, clearly suggests the previous administration sold Ghana out to the United States government in 2015 under the cover of darkness without recourse to Parliament for consideration and ratification.
A copy of the 2015 agreement signed between Hannah Tetteh on behalf of Ghana and James C. Vechery, Brigadier General of the U.S Air Force and Director of Logistics for the U.S Africa Command on behalf of the US government, and which has been kept away from even the Ghanaian Military, spelt out clearly that there will be the facilitation of a reciprocal logistic support between the parties to be used primarily during combined exercise, training, deployments, port calls, operations, or other cooperative efforts.
Peacefmonline.com has in its possession copies of a 1998 agreement signed by the Rawlings government with the USA; and also, an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement entered into by Ghana and the United States in 2015 signed by then Minister of Foreign Affairs under the ertswhile Mahama regime, Hannah Tetteh.
A quick read through both documents (the 1998/2015 agreements) show little discrepancy in the 2018 agreement ratified in Parliament and those signed under the NDC 1 and 3 regimes headed by ex-President Jerry John Rawlings and Hannah Tetteh, respectively on the blind side of Ghana.
Some similarities between the 2018 and the 1998 agreements are cited below:
In the 1998 agreement, it was provided that “US military personnel and civilian employees of the US Department of Defence who may be temporarily present in Ghana in connection with the Africa Crisis Response Initiative and other activities [should]…be accorded the status equivalent to that accorded to administrative and technical staff of the United States Embassy under the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations of 18th April 1961, and that they may enter and exit Ghana with United States identifications and with collective movement or individual travel orders.”
The 2018 agreement has a similar provision. It says in Article 3 Clause 1 that, “Ghana shall accord to military personnel and civilian personnel the privileges, exemptions, and immunities equivalent to those accorded to the administrative and technical staff of a diplomatic mission under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of April 18, 1961.”
Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, held a press conference last Thursday to expose what he described as the dishonesty and hypocrisy of the NDC.
Attached below are copies of the agreements:
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
| Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
