Editor-in-Chief of the Crusading Guide newspaper has described Tamale Central Member of Parliament’s action of failing to remove an audiovisual monitoring device in his former office as an “act of gross indiscretion.”

Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako has said the explanation of him forgetting to remove the bug after Inusah Fuseini was transferred to the Roads and Transport Ministry long before the current Lands Minister occupied it presents a “difficulty” in putting up a “credible defence” for him.

The veteran journalist's comments follow former Lands Minister's revelation that a recording device found in his former office last week was a gift to him.

Inusah Fuseini said a private citizen working with a private security company presented the equipment to him at a time concerns were being raised about his personal security in the wake of his fight against illegal mining.

Current Lands and Natural Resources Minister, John Peter Amewu, found the audiovisual recording device placed behind the Coat of Arms hung in the office.

Speaking to Evans Mensah on Top Story on Joy FM on Tuesday, Mr Inusah explained that, “I thought to all intents and purposes that it was a white elephant and had nothing to do with monitoring my successor.”

This was after he had said the monitoring device had not been activated to transmit any information.

He said the expert who advised him to install the device for his own personal security could not finish the process to transmit any information.

Commenting on the issue on Joy FM/MultiTv's news analysis programme, Newsfile, on Saturday, Mr Baako said although Mr Fuseini is an “honest” person whom he greatly respects, his handling of the matter opened him up for questions. 

“I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt in terms of his motives but I am not prepared to purge him of irresponsibility…it’s a certain act of gross indiscretion,” he said.

Mr Baako quizzed the nature and extent of the Tamale Central MP's fears of his “personal insecurity” warranting him to install a "device in a public office that he occupied without reference to National Security”.

He was also baffled whether Mr Fuseini's "insecurity vanished into thin air" considering that he went through the trouble of allowing the device to be installed yet he said the process was not completed to transmit any information. 

“It’s the litany of these omissions, put together the aggregation is such that it’s difficult then to offer him any credible defence.

“Sentimentally I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt but strictly speaking, from the public point of view, from intelligence point of view, from security point of view. I’m disabled to offer him any serious defence,” he said.

Despite his criticism of Mr Fuseini's act of commission and omission, he thought it would be “a bit too harsh, a bit too extreme” to prosecute him as suggested by former President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA).