GThere is no letup yet to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) authorized guns import saga, as fresh details indicate that the importer of the firearms is the brother of a top member of the opposition party.
A leading member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko, has unmasked the man behind the arms import as being a certain Yaw Djin, who has family links with the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Secretary for the Interior Kofi Djin.
Yaw Djin, who owns YADCO, the company behind the arms import, has been in the firearms business from the 80s, Gabby said on his Facebook wall.
In the latest twist to the saga from the NDC camp, the man, who authorized the importation when he was the Deputy Interior Minister, James Agalga, has said the NPP could have cancelled the approval for the import if it found it problematic.
It’s instructive that the authorization to import was done on the blind side of the transition team; for a government which learnt about such an authorization it’s amazing how it could have cancelled it at such advanced stage of the arrangement.
Agalga Again
While he did not deny the fact that he signed the authorization for the arms import, he maintained his position that the NPP government is responsible for the delivery permit, which he said could have been denied the importer.
“Without doubt, the delivery permit was issued in 2019 and could not have been the handiwork of the NDC when it was in power,” he claimed.
“Furthermore, permits for arms importation are not granted in perpetuity. In fact, permits once issued have a lifespan of one year. Is it therefore the case that whatever permit the CID may have issued pursuant to my letter if any at all expired and was renewed? If so, can it be said that the NDC granted the renewal? Obviously, it couldn’t have been the NDC government,” he said in a statement.
Unnecessary Alarm
Be it as it may, the NDC, which was responsible for the alarm over the clearance of the weapons at the Tema Port, had acted in bad faith knowing full well that it authorized the importation of the guns.
Many have condemned the NDC for turning round to pretend they knew nothing about the guns import.
Hiding behind the possibility of cancelling the deal by the NPP government cannot exonerate the NDC from the political mischief.
Kweku Baako
Veteran journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr has also not spared the NDC as he condemned the party for its mischief in raising the alarm over the importation of the weapons on May 9 at the Tema Port.
In his estimation, it was ‘needless’ and ‘baseless’ on the part of the NDC to raise the alarm after issuing a permit for the import two days before exiting office.
According to him, the alarm raised by NDC was ‘mischief-driven’
and backfired, adding that the transaction adhered to laid-down procedures.
“I’m now feeling sorry and I pray nothing is done to complicate the business of
this company which apparently is licensed to do this business and which went
through the due process to get the permit,” he said.
He added that “all the processes that were going on at the port were in accordance with due process. It wasn’t intercepted as people put it; it came through the regular channel. The CEPS and the rest were doing their regular thing and I have documentation here to show that they adhered to all the requirements of the law.”
The NDC must be blamed for the matters arising from the saga because this is not the first time that they are doing such a thing.
By A.R. Gomda