New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament [MP] for Manhyia North constituency, Collins Owusu Amankwah is accusing his colleagues National Democratic Congress [NDC] Members of Parliament; Members of Parliament for Ningo Prampram and MP for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak of leaking the agreement document on the Ghana-Military ‘Base’ Agreement for purely scoring partisan political points.
The MP was speaking on GhOne TV’s State of Affairs Thursday night.
Without adducing any reason for his accusation, except to say that Sam George posted the documents on his Facebook page, Mr Collins Opoku Amankwaa maintained no one could convince him otherwise, even after Mr Sam George called into the show to deny, insisting he shared what was already in the public domain.
Minority MP Sam Nartey George is on record to have said his caucus will do everything legally possible to stop President Nana Akufo-Addo from selling Ghana’s sovereignty to the United States of America, since, in his view, a leaked military contract between the two countries, essentially makes Ghana America’s “mistress” and “side-chick”.
The defence contract gives U.S military forces unfettered access to some Ghanaian resources.
The two NDC MP’s have been some of the most vociferous against the US military base issue on the side of the minority in parliament since the issue broke.
Dr. Clement Apaak, is demanding full disclosure from the government on the Memorandum of Understanding on defence cooperation between Ghana and the United States.
Dr. Apaak is of the view that the agreement needlessly opens Ghana up to the risk of terror attacks.
“They should come clean. We will not sit by and let them mortgage our future, our security and our role as a leading light in the nonaligned movement,” he told some journalists in Parliament.
He however said the people of Ghana could count on the Minority in Parliament to be transparent in deliberations on the argument.
“We will scrutinize it [the agreement]. We will carry the good people of Ghana along. We will let them understand the implications of what this government is trying to commit us to because what we do today will have implications for future generations and we the members of Parliament of today should not make that mistake of mortgaging our sovereignty and our future and exposing ourselves as an easy target for extremist groups.”
He also questioned what Ghana stood to gain by entering into the agreement.
“There is no reason why we should be entering into this type of agreement when we have nothing to show for it. Those of you who have seen the leaked copy, tell me what section in that agreement benefits the good people of this country? Have you seen any? It doesn’t exist. What is their motivation? We want to find out.”