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General News on Friday, February 8, 2019
Source: dailyguidenetwork.com
2019-02-08
The late Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur
The name of former vice president, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, was revealed during the trial of the former chairman of the National Communications Authority's (NCA) board of directors and four other people.
Navy Captain Asase Gyimah, a lawyer for Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, former national security coordinator on the NCA board, said the late vice-president was aware of the decision. to purchase $ 8 million in Pegasus counterterrorism equipment.
But the fifth prosecution witness, Duncan Opare, who is the current deputy national security coordinator, denied the allegation, saying that there was no document at all. l & # 39; support.
Give and take
This led to concessions between the lawyer and the witness during a cross-examination marathon, which lasted more than four hours.
Lawyer: And I tell you that the former Vice President, the late Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, was aware of the decision to buy the equipment.
Witness: There are no documents.
Lawyer: I suggest that the documents will not be found in your agency.
Witness: In the area of operations and procurement of equipment for the work of the secretariat of the National Security Council, although run by the presidency, the secretariat maintains records.
Lawyer: Where will these records be kept?
Witness: May be kept at the office of the National Security Coordinator or the registry depending on the sensitivity of the information.
No recordings
Mr Opare insisted that there was no record of the National Security Council (NSCS) Council requesting the purchase of Pegasus counterterrorism equipment intended to be used by the agency.
According to him, even in cases where the agency buys highly sensitive material for covert operations through a single market, these purchases must be sanctioned by the national security coordinator.
He added that while not everything is captured in the note pbaded from one coordinator to another, it captures the "essential details".
He added that the payment for the Pegasus equipment, which was not complete, would have been recorded in the delivery note indicating the equipment, operations and state security.
Mr. Asaase-Gyimah described the functions of the equipment, including the fight against terrorism, the recordings, the snapshots of the rear camera, the rear photo, the recovery of complete files and the identification of the GPS positions.
He added that the equipment could also extract the data transmission, the data being then sent back to the command and control services.
But the witness insisted that he could not confirm the words of the lawyer because the equipment was neither installed at the National Security Secretariat nor used.
Mr. Opare also denied the attorney 's statement that the NSCS had met to make a decision authorizing the purchase of the equipment.
"There is no record of the purchase of equipment sanctioned by the Secretariat of the National Security Council on behalf of the state," said the witness.
Another defense attorney, Reindolf Twumasi Ankrah, who pleaded for Osafo Buabeng, businessman George Derick Oppong's lawyer, asked the witness when he knew that A former National Security Coordinator, Yaw Donkor, had written to the NCA asking for funds to buy cybersecurity equipment. .
According to the witness, Colonel Opoku, head of operations at NSCS, showed him a letter on his return from a section of the court, stating that "it is a request of nearly $ 34 million for the implementation of place of a cybersecurity infrastructure ".
Mr. Reindolf asked the witness if he knew that the current national security coordinator, Joshua Kyereme, went to Israel to visit Israel to meet the Pegasus equipment manufacturers. but the witness indicated that he was not aware.
"Do you know that the NS Coordinator is not obliged to write down all secret operations," asked the lawyer.
"In all secret operations, records are kept because they are documents, equipment and other accessories needed for operations," said Opare.
The witness told the court that he had not been invited by the police during the investigation but had handed over his statement to the prosecution on 24 January 2019 at his office.
The court, presided over by Judge Eric Kyei Baffuor, acquitted the witness and postponed the case to 14 February 2019, the Prosecutor, Yvonne Attakora-Obuobisa, summoning his next witness.
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