General News of Friday, 30 March 2018

Source: mynewsgh.com

Military high command fully endorsed US military deal - Defence Committee Vice chair

Collins Owusu Amankwah is Vice Chairman of the Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament Collins Owusu Amankwah is Vice Chairman of the Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament

The Vice Chairman of the Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament has revealed that the military high command of the republic of Ghana agreed with every word of the U.S military deal and even made inputs in it, suggesting he doesn’t understand the basis of the furore over the deal.

Mr Collins Owusu Amankwah, whose committee sat and recommended to the larger house of Parliament the ratification of the Ghana-US Military deal said the very top Military hierarchy fully endorsed the US-Ghana Military Deal.

Mr Amankwah said the top leadership of the military high command were consulted and met the committee to make their contributions. He said they were best placed to do that.

He was speaking on UPFRONT with Raymond Acquah on JoyNews Thursday.

He indicated that the Foreign Affairs Ministry also made inputs as well as the Attorney General’s Department.

“The military High Command were involved at every level. So what you see there is an agreement all stakeholders made inputs in. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the attorney General all contributed.”, he told Raymond Acquah on JoyNews.

The Ghana-US Military deal has been a subject of heated controversy with a group, The Ghana First Patriotic Front staging a well-patronized demonstration against it, with the opposition NDC fully supporting.

The US Ambassador and the government of Ghana have stated repeatedly that the agreement doesn’t grant the US the power to build a base, but many hold the agreement to be a sellout of Ghana’s sovereignty for 20 million dollars, an amount Hassan Ayariga, founder and leader of the All People’s Congress APC has vowed to pay to government to cancel the agreement with the US.