Saturday, 13 October 2012

GHANA CHALLENGES UNITED NATIONS REPORT


The Government of Ghana is to say the least peeved by a damning UN report indicting the country of harboring mercenaries allegedly plotting to oust the Ivorian government. It says, not only is the report flawed; it is also pregnant with mischief. The UN released the report highlighting a secret of meeting that took place in Takoradi, the western city of Ghana on the 12th of July, 2012, where various exiled groups supporting Laurent Gbagbo uniting their efforts and devising a course of action with a view of returning to power in Ivory Coast. This according to the UN report includes the development of a political and military strategy to identify possible bases of operations which they will then move to overthrow the current Ivorian Government.

But Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Mohammad Mumuni in an interview with the press said the report is unfounded and baseless, accusing the authors of prematurely making public the findings.

Though he said the government is studying the report and would consider the appropriate official response to the report, the methodology adopted by the committee of experts “is fundamentally flawed” and the procedure “unusual”.

He explained: “They were unable to prompt us about their findings or observations before incorporating it in a system to enable us react and perhaps explain or even verify certain positions that they held.”

Secondly, he pointed out: “It is flawed also to the extent that this report has prematurely been made public even before, according to they themselves, tabling it at the UN Security Council.”

Without mincing words, Alhaji Mumuni stressed, “There is some mischief in this kind of procedure and we take serious exception to it and we will register our protest accordingly.”

The Foreign Affairs Minister further questioned the rationale in making public, the report before following the “important procedure” of formally laying it before the Security Council.

Moreover, Alhaji Mumuni has contested the contents of the committee’s findings.

“We believe that substantively, there is no foundation whatsoever to the alleged findings that have been made. To the best of our knowledge and believe, there is no strategic command of this stature anywhere on Ghana’s territory.”

He however conceded that if there was any, the unfortunate activity might have happened on the blind side of the country’s security.

He said even thought he is yet to establish any contact with his counterpart in Ivory Coast, he affirmed that Ghana still maintain an excellent relation with Ivory Coast.

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