Ghana’s president John Dramani Mahama Tuesday sought to justify why his country agreed to a U.S programme to accommodate two former detainees of the Guantanamo Bay prison facility.
Speaking to Journalists at a special session organized in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, Mahama, whose government’s decision to shelter the two have been met with mixed reactions, said he saw nothing wrong with it.
Citing assurances from security experts on the ground, as well as moral reasons, Mahama, who is seeking a continued term in office in the ruling government’s almost eight-year rule since 2008 said, the criticisms were misplaced.
“Any Ghanaian is more in danger of dying from a road accident than from these Guantanamo detainees … They just want to pick up the pieces of their lives and live normally. We don’t have anything to fear.
“Guantanamo has been a blot on the human rights record of the world,”
he said, adding ensuring security was a priority for him as president.The men live on a national security compound and are accompanied by a chaperone wherever they go.”
Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih al-Dhuby, the two transferred detainees, have since arrived in the West African country due to a special programme by the U.S Defense Department.
Ahead of today’s meeting, there were suggestions from anti-government establishments that funds had changed hands between the two countries.
But Mahama called such comments reckless.
