The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has dismissed a claim by Ningo Prampam Member of Parliament Samuel Nartey George that its officers could not provide protection for members of the Parliamentary Select Committee who were on their way to Bawku to ascertain the conflict situation.
Sam George had opined that the army was afraid to go to Bawku to protect highly valued personalities.
He said on the Big Issue on TV3 Wednesday, April 5 that the Military was unable to give protection to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and Interior who decided to go to Bawku to ascertain for themselves what the real situation on the ground was.
The committee, he said, rescinded their trip halfway to Bawku because they picked intelligence that it wasn’t safe for them to get there.
“Our army is afraid of going into Bawku to protect the parliamentary committee on defense and interior yet the military could go to Ashaiman to brutalize citizens. If you are strong the boys in Bawku are misbehaving, go there and deal with those behind it,” Sam George said.
But responding to him in an interview with TV3’s Martin Asiedu Darteh on the mid-day news on Wednesday, April 5, Naval Captain Michael Addo Larbi Director of Public Relations for the GAF said “It is not true that the Military wasn’t there to provide the necessary escort or protection for the committee.
“As you go to any conflict-prone area the first thing you get is a security brief of the situation from the ground. That was given to the committee in Tamale. So the decision for the committee not to proceed to Bawku was not because the Military wasn’t there to provide them with the necessary security, they were deployed, they were ready.
“I believe the Bawku Municipal Security Council MUSEC and the Upper East Regional Security Council had all given indications that they were prepared to receive the committee but the trip was canceled at the last minute so is not the situation that the military wasn’t in the position to provide them with the necessary security and escort to Bawku, they were ready for that.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana