Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre Professor Kwesi Aning, believes Ghana’s national security framework is flawed and should be blamed for recent attacks on civilians, especially journalists.
According to him, the National Security Agency is not allowed by law to have an operational unit with agents assigned to make routine arrests and do other tasks normally performed by the police and other statutory security organizations.
He said the current structure makes the operatives unaccountable.
“The National Security, if we use the terminology, ought not to be an operational part of both the National Security Council and the National Security Secretariat,” he said.
He stated that the law empowers the National Security Council such that “when an action is intended to be taken, and it is a police action, then the IGP executes it; but, if based on the assessment, he believes he will need military, Customs, or Immigration support, then all of these subsidiary institutions come in to help.”
Professor Aning believes the problem needs to be addressed immediately, pointing out that recent events, like as the detention and assault of Citi FM journalist Caleb Kudah, are a result of the current National Security apparatus.
“This new culture of operatives of the Secretariat, armed and engaging in hands-on operational activity is something we need to look at. It is not what ought to be, and I think what you experienced at your offices is the reflection of the misunderstanding,” he said on The Point of View on Citi TV.
Source: Citinewsroom
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