Security raids kufuor's cars

The brief but cacophonous exchange of words between minders of President John Evans Atta Mills and a spokesperson for former President John Agyekum Kufuor over three BMW cars, ended yesterday after the retrieval of the vehicles by Castle operatives.

Amazingly the replacement of the retrieved cars with three Chryslers did not take place, as the Blue Gate operatives drove away the vehicles without replacing them as promised. The operatives went to the Airport West residence of the former President to retrieve the cars a day after the deadline.

Even before they descended on the residence of the former President yesterday, Mr. Kufuor had decided that he had had enough of the cacophony over the cars and was therefore not interested in keeping them or receiving replacements for them.

The decision to retrieve the cars which Lt. Col Gbevlo-Lartey, the National Security Coordinator suggested belonged to the VVIP security pool, topped the political news chart for a couple of days with each party defending their positions.

While Frank Agyekum, Spokesperson for former President Kufuor insisted that the action was unconstitutional, Victor Smith, Head of Protocol at the Presidency, found nothing unseemly about it explaining that befitting replacements were going to be delivered.

According to Victor, President Mills' government prefers frugality and would rather retrieve the cars for use by the security detail instead of purchasing fresh ones.

Frank Agyekum maintained that the action was tantamount to varying the terms of conditions of the former President to which Mr. Smith disagreed.

He buttressed his position with a section of the Constitution which spells out that the terms of conditions of a former President must not be varied to his disadvantage.

Mr. Smith claimed a decision was going to be taken afterwards about an appropriate replacement befitting the status of the former President even after delivering the Chryslers.

Now that the Chryslers have even not been delivered, what happens next, remains a subject of conjecture.

By A.R. Gomda