Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has disclosed that parliament will probe President Akufo-Addo’s allegations against the Wagner group in neighbouring Burkina Faso.
“I have information that our Ranking Member of Foreign Affairs, and members on the Foreign Affairs Committee will ask for details briefly to parliament on this reckless, irresponsible, unprofessional statement by the President of our Republic. If he cannot provide us with food, he should not let them bring guns on us as a country,” the Minority Leader said in an address at the NDC’s 10th Delegates Congress at the Accra Sports Stadium.
He further accused the President of creating foreign policy crisis for Ghana.
“He simply failed momentarily to have impulse control and to ensure balance between foreign policy and the security of our state when he openly condemned Burkina Faso and mentioned the Wagner group of Russia.”
Burkina Faso summoned the Ghanaian ambassador on Friday morning for “explanations” after Ghana’s president alleged that Burkina Faso had hired the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said.
Speaking to reporters alongside U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on Wednesday, Akufo-Addo also alleged that Burkina Faso had offered Wagner a mine as payment. In a statement issued after the meeting with the ambassador, Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said it had “expressed disapproval” about the statements made by the Ghanaian president.
“Ghana could have undertaken exchanges with the Burkinabe authorities on the security issue in order to have the right information,” it said.
However, it did not confirm or deny the allegations. In a separate message to Reuters, the foreign ministry spokesperson said, without elaborating: “In any case, Burkina has not called on Wagner”
Burkina Faso also recalled its ambassador from Ghana for a meeting, the spokesperson said. Burkinabe authorities have not commented publicly on whether or not they are working with Wagner, a mercenary group that was hired in neighbouring Mali to help fight Islamist militants.
Meanwhile, Security Analyst, Adib Saani has questioned the propriety of the comments made by Ghana’s Leader, Akufo-Addo on the Wagner Group.
Commenting on the fallout from the development, Adib Saani said since independence, Ghana has maintained a non-aligned posture in the global political chess games between the East and the West thus
“Our decision not to take sides has helped us gain respect and favor from both sides of the divide.”He opined
“But it’s absolutely demeaning for the President, flanked by his ministers, to sit infront of a Secretary of State to report on Wagner, a group that has not in any way neither threatened to invade Ghana, nor has it done anything that poses any threat to the security of Ghana.”
Saani who is also Head of the Jatikay Centre for Human Security and Peace Building maintained that Burkina Faso is a sovereign country and can decide to call on whoever to help it fight any threat to their nation.
“When Ghana hosted the Americans through the defence cooperation agreement, no country in the sub-region complained. So why does our President make such a mockery of us by going to report on an issue that has nothing to do with us hence, bring us international disrepute,” he questioned