3 South Africans to appear in court today
The three retired South African police officers who were picked up at Agona Duakwa in the Central Region for allegedly engaging in activities with national security implications will be put before court today.
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The three — Major Ahmed Shaik Hazis (retd), 54; Warrant Officer Denver Dwayhe, 33, and Captain Mlungiseli Jokani, 45 — were arrested at the EL-Capitano Hotel where they had been based since arriving in the country.
They were alleged to be training 15 young men in various security drills, including unarmed combat, weapon handling, VIP protection techniques and rapid response exercises.
A highly placed source at the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) told the Daily Graphic that the three would be arraigned for a remand warrant to pave the way for investigations to be completed.
According to the source, the three could not be sent to court yesterday to meet the 48-hour rule for arraignment of accused persons after arrest because they insisted that they would not give their statements until their lawyers were present.
“It is now that their lawyers are in and their statements are being taken,” the source told the Daily Graphic, after reporters had waited at the court premises for hours in anticipation that the suspects would be arraigned.
The source was not forthcoming with the charges to be levelled against the suspects.
Background
Although the suspects had initially indicated that they were training the young men for the owner of the hotel, Captain Kwesi Acquah (retd), who is also the owner of Delta Force Security Company Limited, the leader of the group, Major Hazis, is reported to have told interrogators that they had been brought in by a retired military officer (name withheld) to train young men as bodyguards and a rapid response team for some politicians and political parties.
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Officials of the BNI arrested the three on Sunday, March 20, 2016.
The suspects are alleged to have told investigators that they are security management consultants, with Hazis disclosing that he was part of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) flag bearer’s security team during the 2012 elections but left the country soon after.
According to the BNI, a detailed report on the names, pictures and profiles of Superlock Technologies Limited (STL) staff, as well as the operations of the company, was found in Hazis’ possession.
NPP admits
Meanwhile, the NPP has admitted inviting the three suspects.
The party stated that the presence of the three men in Ghana was not for any act that could be said remotely to threaten the country’s security.
According to the party, known security detail of the NPP’s presidential candidate and his running mate were being trained by those security experts licensed to offer VIP protection.
An official statement signed by the Director of Communications of the party, Nana Akomea, and issued in Accra last Tuesday said indeed, the two personal drivers of the candidates, as well as Nana Akufo-Addo’s official photographer, were part of the 15 people undergoing the training, which took place on the premises of a well-known licensed Ghanaian security company.
But a security analyst, Dr Kwesi Aning, has described as dangerous and wrong for foreigners to be brought into the country for purposes of training agents of political parties.
That, he said, was more so when the Legislative Instrument that governed the operations of private security companies frowned on the involvement of foreign nationals.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic on the arrest of the three South Africans for allegedly engaging in acts that are said to likely compromise national security, Dr Aning said the Ghanaian authorities should promptly contact their South African counterparts to get a professional profile of the three.
NPP’s statement
In its statement, the NPP said the three South Africans arrived in the country on business visas, while the training of personnel in VIP protection was part of their business, pointing out, therefore, that no deception was intended.
“Is it not alarming, however, that a case which according to the BNI is still under investigation has been leaked to pro-government newspapers, obviously in the bid to help the NDC score cheap political points?
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“It is our firm conviction that the security agencies, if they are to enjoy the confidence of the people, must always be seen to be non-partisan and professional in the discharge of their constitutional mandates,” it said.
According to the statement, in Ghana, opposition leaders were responsible for providing and maintaining their own personal security, unlike some other countries where the state took responsibility for providing security for opposition leaders.