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A former Colonel in the Ghana Army, Col. (Rtd) Festus Aboagye has said he has strong doubt that the weapons seized by the security agencies in the alleged coup plot can be used to destabilize the Presidency.

“I will beg to differ that the number of weapons that have been listed is not sufficient to destabilize the state. If you want to target the Presidency if you know the infrastructure of the Presidency there are layers of security that you need to go through, you might not see all of them. If the idea was to surgically eliminate the President that is a different issue, that you can do with the ammunition and weapons listed there. But the Presidency itself is an infrastructure that is strong with security; electronic, physical. Indeed the government needs to explain what it meant by the Presidency, is it Jubilee House, the Office of the President or some persons around the President,” he is reported to have said.

However, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah disagrees.

Speaking in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', Tuesday, he said, "if somebody wants to plot a coup, they don't need big weapons and so on; with just a clear shot something bad can happen. These people have been monitored for some time with videos and so on. It is now up to the court..."

Watch video below





Background

The government through the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah on Monday issued a statement detailing how a joint security operation of personnel drawn from Defence Intelligence, CID and Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), conducted a successful operation which led to the arrest of three persons and the retrieval of several arms, explosive devices and ammunition from locations in Accra and Bawaleshie near Dodowa.

The joint operation was to neutralize an elaborate plot targeted at the Presidency, and with the ultimate aim of destabilizing the country. The arrest and seizure come after fifteen (15) months of surveillance and gathering of evidence on the activities of the prime suspects and others.

The persons arrested are Dr. Frederick Yao Mac-Palm and his two accomplices – Mr. Ezor Kafui (a local weapon manufacturer) and Mr. Bright Allan Debrah Ofosu (aka BB or ADC).

The following items were retrieved as part of the operation: 5 x locally manufactured pistols with magazines fitted on, 1 x foreign pistol (Reg. No. PX154006) with 2 Xmagazines, 3 x locally manufactured pistol barrels, 3 x smoke grenades, 22 x Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), 9 x 7.62mm NATO AK47 rounds, 2 x AK47 magazines, 1 x long Knife and 63 x 9mm NATO rounds.