The BNI arrest, NPP’s defense and general comments by security experts on the arrest of three South African former Police officers for secretly training men in a hotel for the largest opposition party has raised other issues that may be escaping the public.
The debate for now has been limited to the legality of their engagement by Ghanaian private firm, Delta Security, whether or not the suspects are mercenaries and the real motive behind NPP’s decision to sidestep the Police Service.
The party maintains the issue is trivial, the suspected mercenaries were legally engaged and that the issue is nothing new.
First the NPP admits they were brought into Ghana by Captain Koda, the Head of security for NPP flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa-Akufo-Addo. And that the training was to enable its security personnel perfect crowd control and better protect the flagbearer and his vice.
Besides VIP protection techniques and unarmed combat, they were going through weapon handling and rapid response maneuvers. For what? Were the recruits going to be supplied weapons, by who and from where and for what? Were the guns retrieved during a raid at the party headquarters last year some of what could be made available?
A recall of statements issued by kingpins within the party paints a much scarier situation especially because of the intentions of some top NPP functionaries. In 2011 Former Chairman of the party, Peter Mac Manu warned the NDC to ready themselves to face the NPP “boot for boot” in 2012.
“We will not sit and allow the NDC to cheat us out of what rightfully belongs to us. They did that in 2008, and this time around we are saying no, enough is enough. If they are fighting with cutlasses, we will meet them with cutlasses, and if they come with guns, we will meet them with guns”. He said on Adom TV's morning show BADWAM
Peter Mac Manu who is now the Manager of Nana Akufo Addo’s campaign team subtly repeated his comments after a failed attempt to force the Electoral Commission to compile a new Voters register.
In January this year he told a news conference “NPP has a ‘Plan B’ to ensure the will of the people is not subverted by the “inept and incompetent" Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government”
What is the Plan B? Train rebels to destabilize the system if NPP loses or what?
The BNI found in the possession of the suspects a comprehensive report on the operations of Superlock Technologies Limited (STL), the company engaged by the Electoral Commission (EC) for the transmission of collated results to the EC during the 2012 general election.
What is most alarming is a detailed profile of all the workers of STL, both past and present, identified key staff members, and an assessment of their strengths and vulnerabilities.
That is a serious breach of privacy. Could this be the plan B, to rig the elections and win at all cost?
NPP’s Communication Directorate has gone public that two of Nana Akufo Addo’s personal bodyguards and a photographer were among the 15 being trained. But it has emerged from residents of Agona Duakwa that majority of the 15 people were recruited in the small town.
That sounds interesting. Where are the invisible forces? Or they have gone through the training. Why was the recruitment done at Agona Duakwa in the Central region and not a selection of men across the country. The El Capitano Hotel has a huge compound and bushes at the outskirt where the training took place? Why the secrecy?
These begging questions must be answered. There is no doubt the NPP is a government in waiting. It is currently divided and struggling to manage the fallout from the bashing of its flagbearer by suspended party officials. Experts have suggested its chances of winning the 2016 elections are becoming slim by the day.
If defeat is staring at 70-plus year old Nana Akufo Addo, he must condition himself for it and not to plunge this country into crisis.
Young ones like National Youth Organizer, John Boadu, Youth Organizer Sammy Awuku, MP for Assin North, Kennedy Agyapong and Buabeng Asamoah, aspiring MP for Adenta must stop beating the war drums.
Ghana’s security forces are at red alert. The Police Administration need to fast-track any law that will back its decision to disband vigilante groups. And that must be done transparently. The EC must at all cost ensure a clean sheet for the elections.
Ghanaians must remain vigilant, condemn acts that threaten the security of our dear nation, and together lets protect the peace Ghana is enjoying.
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