The National Democratic Congress, NDC, Member of Parliament for Banda, Ahmed Ibrahim; has revealed that one of the most protected civil servants in the country is the current Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng.
According to the Banda MP who is also the Deputy Minority Chief Whip, SP Agyebeng has been assigned as many as 11 soldiers for his security.
That figure is one short of the number of soldiers assigned to Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa.
Ahmed Ibrahim’s comment on Accra-based Okay FM on Monday, January 17, 2022; was on the raging issue of the withdrawal of soldiers deployed to Parliament as part of the security detail of Speaker Alban Bagbin.
Aside from the SP and EC chair, the MP also disclosed that all 18 Justices of the Supreme Court, the Minister of National Security and even some private citizens were beneficiaries of military protection. He thus bemoaned the move by government to strip Bagbin of military protection.
“Is Archbishop Duncan-Williams a Minister? He has six soldiers at his residence.” Asked by the show host about the source of his information, he responded: “Kwame, we are part of the arms of governance and we have information on wherever soldiers are deployed.”
He continued: “So you are telling me that the Speaker of Parliament does not merit the security that the EC chair and deputies, Duncan-Williams and Supreme Court justices have? Because Kan-Dapaah has six (soldiers) the Speaker does not merit same? Kwame, where are we going?”
He stated that he believed in principle that persons of a certain stature deserved special protection: “I am not asking that the deployed soldiers be withdrawn from all these officials, the argument that Kan-Dapaah has six soldiers but Speaker doesn’t deserve four is my gripe,” he stressed.
“If Akufo-Addo and Bawumia travel, who is the acting president of the land? So when he assumes role of acting president, he can be assigned soldiers who will be withdrawn thereafter, is that what they are telling us?
“When Bagbin is acting as the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, what courtesies can we extend to him?” he quizzed before calling for depoliticization of a sensitive issue as this.
It emerged recently that the Military has written to the Speaker of Parliament informing him about the withdrawal of some four soldiers assigned to him.
The National Security Ministry justified the withdrawal stating that the security of the Speaker was the responsibility of the Police even though the Military had stated that they were only withdrawing the officers in order to regularize their deployment.
Since then, the Majority and Minority in Parliament have issued statements backing the withdrawal and criticizing respectively, the decision.
Whilst the Minority insists that it was a case of Executive overreach and witch-hunt, the Majority have backed the move stating that Bagbin is the most protected Speaker of Parliament under the Fourth Republic.
Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng