18th January 2022
A former millitary commander, Captain Jabari has condemed in no certain terms the withdrawal of millitary detailing to the Speaker of parliament Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin. According to the captain, the action of the Chief of Defense Staff was strange and inordinate. He alleged that the millitary acted under the command of their political masters which shouldn’t be countenance in this 21st century democracy. He cautioned that should anything happen to the Speaker, the millitary will be held squarely accountable.
Below is the full statement of Captain Jabari.
“Going to social media, I chanced upon a letter addressed to the Office of the Right Honourable Speaker, withdrawing military personnel attached to his security. This move I see as very surprising and a little disappointing. Am a little disappointed because of the conduct of the military high Command, who has fallen for cheap politics. But I am not disappointed because we all know what the Npp government can do. This Npp gets whatever it wants by any means.
The said letter stated that the proper procedure was not followed, so I ask myself as a former military officer, what is the procedure here? I tried to recollect all the procedures available but I could not get one.
The military as a state institution follows traditions, cultures, rules and procedures. So for the military high command to tell us that the military with the Speaker did not follow procedure, I ask myself who is at fault here, is it the Speaker’ s Office or the Military High Command? Because I know the military personnel with the Speaker did not go there on their own free will.
We are in this same country that Chief Justice, EC Chair and some ministers have military detachment with them. So what procedure did they follow. Military personnel are deployed based on threat assessment report among other factors. So please where are the threat assessment for these people mentioned above. I know as a fact the military have been providing security for some paramount chiefs in the country. I know the military have provided security for some Bishops in the country. So what makes the Speaker’ s Office less.
My first question to the military is that, is it the first time any speaker of Parliament have had military personnel?
How were these current military deployed to the current speaker?
The Speaker has been in office for almost a year, are they now realising the mistake in procedure?
My little concern is that why now? Why are the military doing that now, that there is so many manoeuvring in Parliament?
But I will like to remind the military of an event in history of the military in 2016. After the elections, military personnel both offices and men deserted their offices and on their own left for the Jubilee House to serve their political masters. This event is very key because then Chief of Defense Staff, had his driver and body guard desert him for Jubilee House. These illegal deployment were later regularised by the military, there were no withdrawing or punishment.
In conclusion, God forbid, if there is an attempt on the life of the speaker, what will the military tell Ghanaian? Let us stop the cheap politics”
Meanwhile many people have attributed the withdrawal of millitary detail to the Speaker to the latter’ s recent tussel with the government of Nana Akufo Addo. During the budget workshop in Ho last year, the Speaker of parliament described how powerful he is. He said he could remove the president from office through Parliament. Mr. Bagbin added that the president on the other hand has no power to remove the Speaker of parliament from office since the constitution does not give him that power. Many believe this statement was not in good taste and is responsible for the Government’ s decision to show him real power.
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