Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, will be dragged to the Privileges Committee of Parliament over claims he made that Ghana is the second largest supplier of fighters to the dreaded Islamic State, also known as ISIS.
Mr Ablakwa on Tuesday, rehashed portions of an alleged report of a special inquiry commissioned by the Attorney General of Libya, in which Ghanaian migrants featured prominently as members of the group.
The country, together with Somalia and Mali, were ranked in the same category of having between 50 to 100 members in ISIS.
He said: “Rather worrying for Ghana, we are considered to be among the second highest category of 50 – 100. This has been explained by the Attorney-General’s Office in Libya to mean between 50 to 100 Ghanaian migrants in Libya have been identified as active frontline fighters of ISIS in Libya,” Mr Ablakwa said at a press conference in Accra.
Ghana appears in this category with seven other countries namely Senegal, Gambia, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Mali and Somalia.
Only Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan and Libya were found to have more Islamic State fighters than the category Ghana finds itself.
Mr Okudzeto expressed more worry as he indicated that Ghanaian ISIS fighters were involved in abductions and other grave criminal activities.
“A special enquiry found out that kidnapping was done by Islamic State foreign fighters from Ghana, Turkey and Tunisia,” he said.
But these comments, in the view of the Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Defense and Interior Committee, Collins Owusu Amankwah, is contemptuous and endangering the peace of the country.
Speaking to Class news on Friday, October 13, the Manhyia North MP said the comments of Mr Ablakwa make him a candidate for contempt, for which he could be dragged to the Privileges Committee of the House.
“The issues he raised were not substantiated and the issues boarder on security. Security matters are unlike Makola or Kejetia issues where you could handle it anyhow. Some of us are considering either dragging him to the Privileges Committee, so that henceforth, such matters will be well handled as far as the legislature is concerned.
“We are talking of national security. Foreign policies are different from national security. Committees have been assigned to play specific roles and matters that have to do with security must be referred or channeled through Defense and Interior Committee. He could talk about it but not the manner and the way he did it,” he said.
Source:classfmonline.com