US can dump nukes in Ghana under defence agreement - Agalga

A former deputy Minister of Interior, Mr James Agalga has suggested that the United States of America (USA) can exploit clauses in the Ghana-US defence cooperation agreement to ship nuclear weapons to Ghana.

Speaking on Joy FM's news analysis programme, Newsfile on Saturday, Mr Agalga said such destructive weapons could be used to attack the country or launched by United States forces from Ghana to attack other countries.

Related: Parliament ratifies Ghana-US defence agreement

Parliament on Friday approved the agreement.

As part of the agreement, the US government will be spending $20 million in training and supplying equipment for the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), the US Embassy in Ghana has said.

Read also: $20million for Ghana-US defence deal is ‘significant return’ - US Ambassador

Mr Agalga who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa North constituency in Upper East explained that one of the reasons for the vehement opposition to the agreement by the Minority in Parliament is the fact that certain clauses give the US unimpeded access to Ghana’s installations which could be to the detriment of the country.

According to him, Article 7 of the new agreement which is in relation to pre-positioning and storage of equipment, supplies and material indicates that: “The United States Forces are hereby authorised to preposition and store defence equipment, supplies and materiale at agreed facilities and areas. Reposition materiale of United States Forces and the agreed facilities and areas or portions thereof designated for storage of such preposition materiale shall be for the exclusive use of United States Forces. United States Forces shall retain title to and control over the use of preposition materiale and shall have the right to remove such item from the territory of Ghana”.

He explained that “the materiale has not been defined in this agreement even though there is an interpretation article” and “the big danger is that what we have done [approval] could allow the Americans to bring into this country nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and you know the dangers associated with that…You know what is happening in Syria with chemical weapons”.

Mr Agalga was emphatic that the government cannot go into an agreement “that has terminology that you know next to nothing about and I interrogated the Generals who appeared before us and nobody has a clue, including the Honorable Minister, regarding the exact meaning of materiale, so, this is a fundamental difference between this and the previous agreement that we went into”.

He insisted Ghana can be used “as a launch pad to invade other countries or governments in this country could even be toppled [and] we have seen that happen elsewhere”.

“In all truth and sincerity, you know what happened in Cote d’Ivoire? The French military based in Abidjan overthrew a sitting government. So, today, things could be rosy but think about tomorrow.

“That is why the Minority thinks taking all these into consideration our sovereignty is at stake here,” he stated.