Perfect Antithesis

No acoustics whatsoever from the now clean-shaven Mahmud Umar Muhammed Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammed Salih Al-Dhuby, the two former Guantanamo Bay-held US prisoners released to Ghana as part of a wider deal between the United States and some developing countries to absorb paroled inmates of the disbanded prison on the island.

The arrival of the two suspects in Ghana in 2016 sparked controversy with political undertones. The furor that greeted their presence suggested the two men were terrorists who would give vent to their imagined instincts and transfer the obnoxious act to destabilize Ghana.

They had been arrested in international swoops conducted by the United States on suspicion of complicity in the 2001 New York bombings. Despite no evidence of a track record to that effect suggestive of arbitrariness in their incarceration, their initial presence in Ghana incited public anger as politicians rubbed salt into the whole affair.

It is eight years now since the Gitmo 2 were brought to Ghana yet there has been a striking absence of sound around them in terms of causes and effect. No bombs have been dropped by the ex-Guantanamo Bay convicts who have so far walked in the perfect antithesis of their label and betrayed as only hot air allegations leveled against them.

The contention about the constitutionality of their admission to Ghana is down to the laws of Ghana, and this was justifiable. Mahmud Umar Muhammed Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammed Salih Al-Dhuby have reportedly been granted refugee status for a continual stay in Ghana.