Hannah Tetteh's Agreement Gave US Soldiers Access

Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, says Hannah Tetteh granted American soldiers access to Ghana’s facilities courtesy a military cooperation pact in 2015.

Much to his surprise, members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration which signed that agreement with the American government in 2015, are the ones leading a section of the public to disapprove of the 2018 enhanced agreement submitted to Ghana by the US for approval.

According to Mr. Nitiwul, the US Army is not the only foreign military to have accessed Ghana’s facilities as several other foreign troops have had same.

“The access to tour facilities is not new to us. Ever since Hannah Tetteh signed the 2015 agreement Americans and other countries have always had access to our facilities,” the Defence Minister told Samson Lardy Anyenini, host of news analysis programme, Newsfile on JoyNews TV, Saturday, March 24, 2018.

He disclosed that the 2015 agreement also granted tax exemptions on the importation of equipment and items including food, water and clothing, as well as access to the country’s radio spectrum free of cost to the US military.

“The very things Ghanaians especially the NDC, are speaking against today, they [NDC] signed it,” he revealed.

The NDC now in opposition, are opposed to an enhanced 2018 agreement which is premised on the one they signed in 2015, insisting it will mortgage the country’s sovereignty to a superpower.

Read: Minority vows to scuttle US-Ghana military cooperation deal

On Friday, the minority NDC members in the legislature walked out a couple of times as the House deliberated on the controversial military cooperation agreement ahead of the ratification.

The majority side, led by Osei Kyei Mensa-Bonsu, adopted the report by the Committee on Defence and Interior and ratified the agreement.

Read: Ghana-US military agreement ratified after bouts of walkouts

Meanwhile, the Defense Minister has revealed that Ghana did not keep a copy of the 2015 military agreement saying he only got to know of the 2015 agreement when the US referred to it in the 2018 agreement.

Read: Ghana never had a copy of 2015 agreement – Nitiwul reveals

“Until they made reference to it I didn’t have any idea…it was when Ghana Armed Forces were meeting with the US to structure this agreement…that is when the Americans gave them a copy of the 'Hannah Tetteh agreement'. That is how we messed up ourselves as a country," he said.