NPP’s Nana B to challenge government’s acceptance of deportees in court
National Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, has indicated his intention to legally challenge the government’s recent acceptance of some fourteen deportees from the United States.
This, according to him, is in response to what he describes as the current government’s flagrant disregard of the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s precedent in the landmark 2017 “Gitmo 2” case by entering into a new international agreement with the US without parliamentary approval.
In a recent a social media post, Nana Boakye referenced comments made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on Wednesday, which sought to justify the government’s new agreement with the United States to receive deportees from other West African countries.
In his Wednesday appearance on Citi TV’s Point of View, Hon. Ablakwa insisted that the arrangement, structured as a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), did not require ratification by Parliament under Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution.
This position, according to the NPP National Organizer, directly violates the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2017, after the then Mahama-led government agreed to receive two former detainees of Guantanamo Bay without parliamentary approval.
“In 2016, myself and Madam Margaret Banful with Hon. Nana Adjei Baffour Awuah as our lawyer were the Plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case… which challenged the legality of President Mahama entering into an agreement with the U.S.A. to receive two former detainees of Guantanamo Bay without parliamentary approval under Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution,” the post stated.
“The Supreme Court declared the actions of the then Mahama administration as unconstitutional and illegal. Shockingly, I have sighted an interview by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa yesterday… [where he] incoherently sought to justify President Mahama’s decision to enter into an agreement with the USA to receive deportees from other West African countries without parliamentary ratification,” he added.
Henry Nana Boakye argued that the Minister’s justification directly contradicts the Supreme Court’s binding judgment delivered on June 22, 2017, in which a seven-member panel presided over by then Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo established that the form of an international agreement is irrelevant if it creates legal obligations for Ghana.
“The Constitution makes no mention of any formal distinctions that are dependent on the formality with which such an instrument is formatted or brought into being… where, by various forms of documentation, the Government of Ghana binds the Republic of Ghana to certain obligations in relation to another country… an international agreement comes into existence
“Upon a true and proper interpretation of Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic of Ghana… required the ratification by an Act of Parliament… and by virtue of the failure to obtain such ratification the agreement is unconstitutional,” Citi TV host Bernard Avle shared excerpts of the Court’s ruling on Wednesday.
Nana Boakye further argued that the current government, by relying on the Attorney General’s opinion and Cabinet discussions to bypass parliamentary ratification, is demonstrating a reckless disregard for the Constitution, Parliament, and the Supreme Court.
“President Mahama and Hon. Ablakwa can therefore not hide behind the form of the agreement being an MOU… when in substance, the President has already operationalized the MOU by receiving a number of these deportees into the Republic,” he asserted, and confirmed that he has instructed his lawyers to start the process of returning to the Supreme Court to seek an enforcement of Article 75.
“This flagrant disregard of our constitution and the Supreme Court must not be allowed to fester,” he urged.
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