By Raymond Archer – GIJ Intern
Accra – As the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) added its voice to calls for the rejection of the exportation of chimpanzees to Ghana, a Ghanaian resident in the US, has asked President Jerry John Rawlings to probe how Mrs. Valerie Sackey, Director of the Castle Public Affairs Bureau and Dr. Kwabena Adjei, Member of Parliament for Biakoye, approved of the project without consultations with the Ghana Embassy in the US.
In a response to Rawlings’ directive to the Minister of Lands and Forestry to open consultations witsh various stakeholders in the proposed export of the chimps to Ghana by Friends of Animals (FoA), a US based NGO, Dr. Kofi Ellison, a leading campaigner against the project, commended the President for his directive to the Minister, but called for an investigation into the roles played by Mrs. Sackey of the Office of the President, and Dr. Adjei, MP for the constituency where the chimps are to be settled.
“The President should rather have launched an investigation into the whole deal to unearth whatever quid pro quos were offered. To determine how come the Embassy of Ghana in the United States was kept in the dark in the negotiations and discussions that enabled Dr. Kwabena Adjei, the MP, to accept the project. The President should also have talked to one of his close staffers, Valerie Sackey, who provided support to the Friends of Animals,’ Dr. Ellison wrote in an e-mail response to the Chronicle.
He said he wished that Rawlings had rejected “this Trojan horse gift” because all Ghanaians who understand the dangers posed by the return of the chimps are adamantly opposed to the project and wondered why the president would throw back the matter to the very people: traditional authorities and the political leaders of the area including Dr. Adjei.
“These are the very people who were duped into accepting this stupid idea in the first place. The project offers no benefits to the people. And even if it did, the health hazards that the chimps pose cannot atone for whatever economic impact may accrue to the people”.
He prayed that in making the decision to reject or endorse the project, the Minister of Lands and Forestry would be guided by the principle of what is in the supreme interest of Ghana.
“With regard to this project, the supreme interest of Ghana requires us to reject the chimps outright. There is absolutely no reason why a respected nation like ours, with a respected and an intelligent citizenry should become the refuge and dumping ground for other people’s refuse’.
Responding to calls by those who say the chimps should be allowed into Ghana because people like him do not have proof of the possibility that the chimps have been used for experiments and therefore carry communicable diseases, Dr. Ellison said “the burden of proof must not be on us, we live in the United States, we are aware through the media and the books that such tests have taken place and continue to take place. Just two weeks ago, the University of Minnesota students protested the continued use of the chimps in deadly and toxic laboratory tests. If these chimps get to the hands of FOA where will they go?”
He wondered why the FOA has refused to provide records on the chimps but insist that critics provide proof of their claims. “Our proof is the fact that there are a huge number of cover-ups that go with lab animals”.
Similar concerns echoed by Ellison were expressed by the Ghana Bar Association on Tuesday, this week by Ghanaians here and in the US.
In a statement jointly signed by Messrs. J. Ebow Quarshie and J. Ayikoi Otoo, National President and National Secretary respectively, the GBA called on the Government to unequivocally reject the chimpanzees.
“We do not need to waste money on Committees to advise us on the inherent dangers. The practice ought to be condemned.”
Similarly, Ghanaians here have been bristling over the exportation of the chimps to the Nkonya Ntumda area in the Jasikan District of the Volta Region. Many have written to the newspapers and called radio stations to condemn the project.
