The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority in Parliament has criticised the Minister for the Interior, Foreign Affairs Minister, and the acting Minister of Defence for failing to brief the House on the killing of eight Ghanaians in Burkina Faso, one week after the tragic incident.
Lack of information from the Ministers, according to the Minority, amounts to a serious lapse in government’s security oversight and response mechanisms, describing the development as a failure of the state’s security system in protecting its citizens, particularly those travelling to high-risk countries.
Speaking to the media in Parliament after a joint Minority committee meeting, Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee and Member of Parliament for Assin South, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, said Parliament had waited for over a week without receiving any official briefing from the security sector ministers.
“We have waited in Parliament for over a week. None of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Defence or the Interior has had the courtesy to appear before the House to update us,” he stated.
He disclosed that the Minority members on the Foreign Affairs, Defence, Interior, and Security and Intelligence Committees formally wrote to summon the three ministers to provide details on the circumstances surrounding the attack.
“We sought to understand what contributed to the attack, what has been done so far, and what mechanisms are being put in place to prevent future occurrences. Clearly, there was a failure on the part of the government to put in place preventive measures,” he said.
Rev. Fordjour added that the Minority has proposed what he described as credible security and diplomatic arrangements to strengthen protections for Ghanaian citizens both within and beyond the country’s borders.
“Never again must such terrorist killings occur. We are mindful of the geopolitical complexities within the sub-region and insist on sound government policies, effective mechanisms and appropriate collaboration with external partners to safeguard our citizens,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Abu Jinapor, described the incident as a terrorist attack that requires urgent government intervention.
He called for a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into the killings, the renegotiation of the Accra Initiative, and the immediate completion of Forward Operating Bases to strengthen Ghana’s border surveillance and security architecture.
The Minority maintained that protecting Ghanaian lives must remain a top national priority, particularly amid rising insecurity within the West African sub-region.
