Our Reporter
FORMER President John Dramani Mahama has joined other Ghanaians in condemning the military invasion of the Chamber of Parliament on Thursday, following the continued failure of lawmakers-elect to elect the Speaker for the Eighth Parliament.
The soldiers, numbering about 20, emerged in the Chamber together with armed policemen ostensibly to restore calm in the Chamber.
The well-armed security detail, with some having facemasks, came to the floor of Parliament at about 3.30 a.m. reportedly on the orders of the former Minister of Defence, Mr. Dominic Nitiwul.
The appearance of the military rocked the nerves of the legislators, especially members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Graphic Online
BY: Zadok Kwame Gyesi
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A security analyst Col. Festus Aboagy (rtd) is of the view that the failure on the part of service commanders to tell politicians what they can do and what they cannot do is what has led to the deployment of armed military personnel to the chamber of Ghana’s parliament to handle security issues.
For him, it is dangerous for Ghana’s democracy to involve the military in matters that ought to be handled by the police.
Speaking in an interview with Accra-based Joynews on Thursday morning, January 7, 2021, Col. Aboagy said service commanders have the professional responsibility to advise politicians as to what they can do and what they cannot do, stressing that “because we have been failing to over many years in telling politicians where the lines must be drawn, that is why the politicians are emboldened all the time to exert pressure in issues that the military must not be involved; and is a danger.”