Deputy Communications Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has said that the three South African ex-police arrested earlier this week had military accoutrement with them when they were arrested. 

He said this on JOYFM/MultiTv's news analysis programme, Newsfile, Saturday where he also confirmed that Captain (rtd) Edmund Koda has been re-arrested. 

Felix refuted claims that government is speaking for the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) when they should be speaking for themselves. 

“The commentary is unfortunate, the NDC is a stakeholder in Ghanaian affairs and reserve the right to talk on national happenings. It is unfair to brand NDC activist speaking on this matter as spokesmen of the BNI,” he said.

Mr. Ofosu lamented the fact that the BNI does not have a PR division to speak on it behalf which he said should be reviewed although he also thinks the status quo has its advantages.

Private legal practitioner, Egbert Faibille said the men were on a business trip and to listed the items the three men had with them emphasizing that they did not have any gun on them.

He said they had, “paint gun (non-lethal), extension cords, boots, mosquito coil, brown envelopes, water bottles, files, empty cylinders” which were consigned to Delta Security Services here in Ghana.

However, Mr. Ofosu said the BNI did no wrong in swooping in on the three men considering the security awareness around West Africa and the world following recent terror attacks. 

He rejected Mr. Faibille's claims about the items adding that those were the things they declared.  

Mr. Kwakye said, “When they were arrested other accouterments found on them includes military accouterments. They found accouterment that were the sole preserve of the military not even the police are allowed to do that,” Ofosu said. 

He said they also had sandbags, which only the military uses for purposes of training.

The BNI also found a dossier on a company, which has a close relationship with a state agency (STL) and the Electoral Commission on the three South Africans.  

"The dossier contains detailed briefs of the profiles of key workers of STL and their operations. From my own perspective, that signals espionage and no self-respecting security outfit  act in the way that the BNI has done," said Mr Ofosu. 

According to Mr. Ofosu, the youngest among the three arrested is widely travelled and he flies to Iraq very frequently.

He described NPP's responses on the issue to be "cagey or at best sketchy about who invited the men into Ghana." 

Mr. Ofosu said the explanations given so far by the NPP are begging the question.

He stated the attempt by Deputy Genera Secretary, Nana Obiri Yeboah, to distance the party’s flag bearer from the three men when news broke about their arrest.

He called the party's national chairman Frederick Armah Blay’s statement of government and its affiliates endangering the life of the flag bearer as “puerile lies’ with no evidence.