Dr. Clement Apaak, the Member of Parliament for Builsa South, has taken a swipe at President Akufo-Addo for claiming that the government of neighbouring Burkina Faso has given Russian mercenaries a mine as payment to help fight an insurgency in their country.
The legislator opined that it was diplomatically unwise for him to have made the comments he made.
He also posited that as a former ECOWAS Chair, it was unfortunate and politically irresponsible on his part.
President Akufo-Addo, who is in Washington for the US-Africa Leaders Summit, raised the claims at a meeting on Wednesday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to a statement from the department.
Akufo-Addo stated that the mine is near Ghana’s northern border with Burkina Faso, which used the operation to pay for Wagner Group’s work.
Meanwhile, Burkina Faso summoned Ghana’s ambassador on Friday morning for “explanations” of the claims by the president.
The country has also recalled its Ambassador to Ghana over the issue.
Dr. Apaak, in response to the issue, called the president’s remarks “terrible” and warned that they could spark diplomatic tensions between Ghana and Burkina Faso.
He believed the president should have understood that it was not everything he needed to disclose in public.
He said in a tweet that as a former foreign affairs minister, he should have been guided by experience and guided in his comments.
”Wasn’t Akufo-Addo a Minister for Foreign Affairs? Wasn’t he the Chair of Ecowas? So he doesn’t know that it’s not everything that is said publicly?”
Source: ghanaweb.com
