<<Print>>

A publication by the Daily Guide newspaper claiming Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon. Hanna Tetteh rapped the National Chief Imam into siding with government over its decision to accept two alleged terrorists in Ghana, has been debunked by Chief Imam’s spokesperson, Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu.

In Thursday’s edition of the Accra-based daily, the newspaper reported that "The National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration appears to have come under pressure following the housing of two suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists in Ghana, which has created apprehension among the populace”.

“With Christian groups calling for the return of the suspects (detained by the United States of America at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba) to where they came from, government had turned its attention to Muslim groups, with a high-powered team visiting the over 90-year-old National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, at his New Fadama residence in Accra”.

“Hanna Tetteh, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, who led the delegation, succeeded in wooing Sheikh Sharubutu and his team to accept the two Guantanamo Bay detainees linked to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terrorist group”.

“Hanna Tetteh, in the company of General Joseph Henry Smith, Ghana’s Ambassador to the US, and Melinda Tabler-Stone, Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Accra, met with the Chief Imam along with other Muslim clerics at the Chief Imam’s residence to deliberate on the matters arising from the arrival of the two Gitmo detainees currently in the country”.

But reacting to the Daily Guide publication, Sheikh Shaibu on Okay Fm’s Ade Akye Abia Morning emphatically stated the aspect of the publication which says the minister wooed Chief Imam is the language of the newspaper and not the reality of what transpired at the closed-door meeting.

“I think the Daily Guide has written what does not represent the reality; Daily Guide spoke to me directly and I know what I told them. if they wrote in that way, then it is their language but it doesn’t describe the reality that happened there,” he stated.

He explained that Hon. Hannah Tetteh as courtesy demands walked the Chief Imam through the background which led to the housing of the two ex-detainees from Guantanamo Bay; stressing that the explanation given to the Chief Imam is already public knowledge.

Though at one breadth the issue discussed at the closed-door meeting is sensitive which prevented the media to be present, Sheikh Shaibu said “what she told the Chief Imam is exactly what she has been saying publicly”.

“So if Daily Guide says she succeeded in wooing Chief Imam, it is the language of the newspaper and not the reality of what happened because Daily Guide was not in the room; the newspaper was completely absent from the hall when the minister and the three ambassadors made a courtesy call on Chief Imam to brief him,” he insisted.