The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Security Warehouse Limited, Adam Bonaa has likened the presence of armed military personnel in the Chamber of Parliament to a coup d’état and backed calls from stakeholders for a probe into the presence of the military in Parliament.
He insisted that the said act must be dealt with properly to curtail its reoccurrence in the future.
More than a dozen armed military persons invaded the parliamentary chamber on the dawn of January 7, 2021, when members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were engaged in heated arguments over the processes involved in the election of a new speaker of the 8th Parliament.
Their presence has since attracted condemnation from the Members of Parliament (MPs) and other relevant bodies with some holding the Marshal of Parliament responsible since he is in charge of the general security of the House.
According to Mr Bonaa, “to the extent we have the enclave being a police district, police officers are those who are trained to deal with internal security but bringing in military personnel into that area can be equated to a military coup d’état.”
He expressed concern over whoever invited them there and that person should answer for the citizenry to know why that happened because calls for investigation into that are legitimate and shouldn’t only be NDC’s call but national call to end such occurrences.
Earlier, former President John Mahama had made similar call for an investigations into the issue saying “Parliament must conduct an investigations into the two incidents and exact appropriate sanctions,” and accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of trying to return the country to era where military personnel had control of governance, evidenced in continuous use of military in various national democratic exercises.
However, the Chief Marshall of Parliament, Colonel (rtd) John Buntugu had denied involvement and knowledge of the military invasion of Parliament and was taken unawares about situation and immediately proceeded to speak to the military commanders that came in with the personnel and urged them to leave because their presence was not the best.–citinewsroom.com
