Prez revokes ban on Nunoo-Mensah, others(June 25, 2009)

Story; Michael Donkor.
PRESIDENT John Evans Atta Mills yesterday revoked the ban imposed on certain retired service commanders of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) which barred them from visiting military installations and facilities throughout the country.
He also announced an increment in the allowance of Ghanaian peacekeepers from $27 to $30 a day.
According to him, the ban smacked of high handedness and vindictiveness, which he emphasised would not be tolerated during his term of office.
Indeed, some of the officers, such as General Arnold Quainoo and Brigadier-General Nunoo-Mensah, who were affected by the ban were present at a durbar of the GAF at Burma Camp where the President made the announcement.
It would be recalled that the government of former President Kufuor issued the ban on Generals Quainoo, Nunoo-Mensah, the late Rear-Admiral Kwadwo Owusu-Ansah and others from visiting any military installation or facility in the country.
President Mills said it was preposterous for the former regime to ban persons of such integrity who had devoted their entire lives to safeguard the country’s territorial integrity from visiting their friends and relations at the various barracks dotted across the country.
Again, the President said, it was also inhumane to restrain such high-ranking retired officers who posed no threat to the country’s security from seeking medical attention from the military hospitals.
He said the retired service commanders of the various sectors of the GAF had paid their dues to the building of the nation and should be treated with respect and not humiliation and contempt.
President Mills donated six buses to the GAF to be used to support the training of personnel in the service.
The buses will be distributed to the Ghana Military Academy, the Ghana Army, the Air Force, the Navy Recruit Training School, as well as the Army Combat and Armed Forces Training School.