Where are 44 Ghanaians killed in Gambia – NPP ask Prez. Mahama

• Posted on February 12, 2015February 12, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) says President John Mahama owes Ghanaians a duty to explain the whereabouts of the 44 Ghanaians reportedly killed in the Gambia in 2005.

According to the Minority NPP in Parliament, the president, then a ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, persistently pressurized the Kufuor administration to find the 44 missing persons, but after he was given the mandate to rule, Mr. Mahama had failed woefully to resolve that issue with The Gambia.

The NPP made the demand at a news conference in Accra on Tuesday when discussing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s handling of foreign affairs.

Hansard Revelation

The minority quoted Mahama – then Bole MP – as captured in the Hansard of March 2, 2007 asking then Deputy Foreign Minister, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, what the ‘value’ of a Ghanaian was and whether he put ‘warm’ diplomatic relations with the Gambia ‘higher’ than the lives of 44 of “our citizens murdered extra judicially.”

President Mahama at the time even went further to tell Mr. Osei-Adjei to take the issue up to ECOWAS and Africa Union levels or the African Human Rights Commission and said he had a report on the matter prepared by Gambian officials which indicated how the 44 were killed and their bodies dismembered and hastily interred.

However, when the supposed families of the 44 victims were to be compensated sometime in 2010 or so, only eight were sorted out by the NDC government and the NPP is wondering where the rest were.

“Mr. President, you said 44 were killed, was that the truth? You said you had the report, were you truthful? Today, you are not just the President of Ghana but Head of ECOWAS; what have you done after six years at the highest levels of Ghana’s government?” the minority asked, especially in view of the president’s recent visit to The Gambia over the failed coup to topple Yahaya Jammeh, the Gambian strongman.

AFCON Attacks

The NPP also said they never heard the president comment on the football fans that were attacked at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON 2015), when Ghana played against hosts Equatorial Guinea in the semi finals.

Ghana Embassy Casino

The minority further demanded answers to a bizarre news that Ghana’s mission premises in Tokyo, Japan, was used to operate an illegal casino.

The incident led to the recalling of Ghana’s Ambassador to Japan, Edmund K. A. Deh, and in spite of Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh’s promise on March 20, 2014, to keep the public informed about investigations into the matter, nothing was heard almost one year on.

“The nation is still waiting to be properly informed about the results of the investigations into this matter which began in March 2014 and the actions taken by the government to ensure that such a disgraceful thing does not recur.”

Regional Elections

The party urged President Mahama and others as regional leaders to ‘reproach’ ECOWAS political leaders who have the penchant to distort electoral processes of their respective countries and admonished Nigerians living in Ghana not to mount billboards here to advertize their preferred candidates in the forthcoming crucial general elections to be held in that country.

By William Yaw Owusu