Politics of Thursday, 21 April 2016

Source: tv3network.com

Mahama asked to sack BNI boss

Mike Oquaye JnrMike Oquaye Jnr

Some members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are calling on President John Dramani Mahama to relieve the head of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) of his job over what they say is abuse of power.

The BNI was pivotal in the deportation of two ex-South African police officers, whom they suspected to be training some Ghanaians in acts that threatened the security of the state.

Not even a stern resistance by the NPP could stop the BNI from prosecuting the resolve to send the foreign nationals back to their country.

The South Africans were picked up from a hotel in the Central Region together with Captain Edmund Koda, the head of security of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

On Tuesday night, Nana Addo’s cameraman and his bodyguard were detained by the BNI after they accompanied Captain Koda as witnesses over some seized items.

'Order from above'

In explaining the circumstances that led to the detention of the two, Mike Oquaye Jnr, a member of the party’s communications team, said the action of the BNI amounts to subverting the constitution of the country and, so, they should be punished for it.

“I think this abuse of power by the BNI is unconstitutional,” he said on TV3's Midday Live on Wednesday, April 20.

He said the two were detained following an “order from above” as they had been at BNI's office earlier in the day.

Mr Oquaye Jnr said if the president is not that power from above, he should crack the whip on the BNI boss for the recent “abuse of power”.

Other than that, he further explains, the president should be seen as supporting crime and being behind abuse of human and civil rights.