A former Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Charles Owiredu, has accused President John Dramani Mahama’s administration of breaching the constitution by quietly accepting Nigerian and Gambian migrants deported from the United States under what he described as a secret arrangement.
Mr Owiredu, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Abirem in the Eastern Region, argued that Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution requires international agreements to be ratified by Parliament, yet this particular deportation deal was never laid before the House.
“The deal should have been brought to Parliament,” Owiredu wrote in a Facebook post. “It’s the same President Mahama who entered into a deal for the relocation of the Gitmo 2 to Ghana. What’s in it for our beloved country, Ghana?”
His remarks were prompted by a U.S. court challenge in which Judge Tanya Chutkan questioned whether the Trump administration had circumvented immigration laws by deporting Nigerians and Gambians to Ghana rather than their countries of origin.
The development has provoked sharp criticism from opposition MPs, who argue that the agreement risks entangling Ghana in Washington’s “harsh and discriminatory” immigration practices.
The Mahama government is yet to issue an official response to the claims.
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