National Security needs ‘parazone’ cleansing – Adam Bona

Security analyst Adam Bona says Ghana’s national security must be cleansed in order to remove “rogue” element from its ranks.

The comment comes on the back of the alleged detention and torture of journalists working with online portal ModernGhana.

“We have rogue elements in the national security and until those rogue elements are swept and cleaned with parazone we will continue to see things like this, blindfolding people and transporting them.

“The Ghana service has a cybercrime unit which is headed by an assistant commissioner of police. If they wanted to be transparent with this arrest they could have gone in with these people with all the evidence,” Mr. Bona told Starr News.

Editor of ModernGhana, Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri has recounted how he and his colleagues were detained and abused by officials of the national security.

Abugri has said that he was tortured and beaten by National Security operatives while in detention following a raid of their office and their subsequent arrest.

Mr Abugri, who was released on Saturday, 29 June 2019, said he was not spared by his captors who, he claimed took turns to hit and taser him.

However, the National Security said there was no physical abuse on the suspect.

“The National Security Council Secretariat has taken notice of reports that Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri, one of the two suspects from Modern Ghana who was arrested for engaging in cyber-crimes, has made claims of being subjected to acts of torture whilst in the custody of its officers.

“The Secretariat takes a very serious view of these claims and wishes to state, in no uncertain terms that these allegations are false. We consider it to be a clear and deliberate attempt by the suspect to discredit the investigations and the case against him."

"Torture and manhandling of suspects are not part and parcel of the culture and architecture of the secretariat under the administration of President Akufo-Addo,” a statement from National Security said.