Supreme Court Is Not Acting Like The British, Dr. Amoako-Baah

If anything at all, what the Parliamentary Majority ought to be exploring is a means of amending sections of the country’s 1992 Fourth-Republican Constitution, to make it possible, as a matter of urgency, for former President John Dramani Mahama and all of his appointees who were directly involved in causing the two Guantanamo Bay terror suspects to be resettled in the country to be promptly prosecuted.

It is not really the duty or function of the Supreme Court of Ghana (SUCOGA) to order the immediate removal or deportation of Messrs. Al-Dhuby and Bin-Atef, both of whom were born and raised in Saudi-Arabia but reportedly of Yemeni citizenship, from the country, contrary to the assertion by Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology political scientist Dr. Richard Amoako-Baah (See “Dr. Amoako-Baah Challenges Supreme Court Ruling on Gitmo 2” MyNewsGh.com / Ghanaweb.com 6/27/17).

Like most functional democratic cultures, the Sophia Akuffo-led Supreme Court of Ghana can only interpret the Constitution and determine what relevant steps the executive and legislative institutional establishments, or branches of government, need to take in order to comply with the stipulations enunciated in the highest and most sacred political and legal document of the land. And this is precisely what Chief Justice Akuffo and her other six associates did, when they asked the Flagstaff House to submit the agreement approving the resettlement of the Gitmo 2 in the country to Parliament for debate and either ratification or rejection and the prompt deportation of Messrs. Bin-Atef and Al-Dhuby within the temporal space of 3 months.

Whatever Parliament decides within the 3-month period ordered by the SUCOGA is highly unlikely to result in the immediate removal of the two Saudi-born Yemeni terror suspects, who were originally admitted into the country with the mutual understanding between the extant Mahama and Obama governments that these two terror suspects would be taken on by a third-party country of final destination after their 3-year stay in Ghana. We need to know precisely what benefits the key operatives of the Mahama regime received from the Obama Administration before any serious discussions involving the fate of the Gitmo 2 can take place and the appropriate steps and decisions arrived at.

Some key operatives of the Mahama regime, including former President Mahama himself, may have to be rigorously prosecuted to send an unmistakably deterrent message to the country’s leaders that any selfish and willfully unwise attempt to recklessly endanger the existence of Ghanaian citizens and the security of their country will not be tolerated under any circumstances, whatsoever. Needless to say, it is the glaring absence of the imperative requirement of such leadership responsibility that has prompted the front-bench operatives of the main opposition National Democratic Congress to feel so puerilely self-righteous and smug about the dire implications of converting our country into a cheap and readily accessible haven for terror-suspect rejects from Guantanamo Bay and possibly other destinations in the offing.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
June 27, 2017
E-mail: [email protected]