General News of Wednesday, 11 December 2002

Source:  

NPP using BNI on NDC?

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority in Parliament on Wednesday claimed that the national security agency is interfering in the Party's delegates' congress scheduled for December 21.

A statement issued in Parliament House in Accra signed by the Minority Spokesman on Communications, Mr John Mahama said the recent interception of a report asking Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) operatives in the districts to gather intelligence information on the preferred candidate for the NDC presidential candidate amounts to gross interference in the internal affairs of the Party. It said "Further information received from all constituencies indicates that BNI operatives are compiling a list of delegates who will be attending and voting at the upcoming congress".

The NDC statement described the action of the National Security as "akin to the infamous 'Watergate Scandal' of the 1970s in which the Nixon Administration in collusion with some US security operatives grossly violated the privacy of the Democratic Party." The statement said the BNI is a state security agency and must conduct its work in the interest of the state and not in the interest of any particular political party of government. It said the action of the BNI is injurious to the nation's democratic growth and requested that all appropriate legal and constitutional instruments be urgently employed to investigate the matter and bring the officials involved to book.