CSO petitions parliament to freeze passage of 'Spy' legislation

quist

February 24, 2016 9:59 AM

In a letter to the house, signed by Ing. Nana Sarpong Agyeman-Badu enumerated nine reasons why the bill must be passed in its current state.

Civil Society Organisation, Occupy Ghana, is requesting of the parliament of Ghana to suspend the passing of the Postal Packets and Telecommunication Messages Bill until enough public opinion has been sought on the matter.

In a letter to the house signed by Ing. Nana Sarpong Agyeman-Badu enumerated nine reasons why the bill must be passed in its current state.

Occupy Ghana enumerated nine reasons including the fact that the executive arm of government has not had enough public engagement on the bill before proceeding to parliament.

They also assert that the bill is compromised by the parochial interests of the executive and as such, steps must be taken to limit the potential machinations of the Executive to the extent that the Act will be used to spy on government opposition.

Occupy Ghana also objected to the provision that mandate will be given to the National Security Coordinator to give ORAL authorization for the interception of the postal packets and telecommunication messages of Ghanaians within 48hours before confirmation through the law court.

Here is the letter written to parliament and copied to Pulse.com.gh

23 February, 2016.

The Chairman

Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and Interior

Parliament House

Accra

Dear Sir,

OCCUPYGHANA® OBJECTS TO THE INTERCEPTION OF POSTAL PACKETS AND TELECOMMUNICATION MESSAGES BILL

OccupyGhana® has followed with keen interest discussions on the “Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunication Messages Bill”. We will make detailed remarks about the idea in a later publication and possibly testify before the respective Parliamentary Committee. Meanwhile we are by the observations below registering our opposition to the passing of this Bill by the Parliament of Ghana:

We hope our reasons stated above will be considered by the Parliament of Ghana to suspend the passing of the “Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages Bill”.

OccupyGhana® is willing to appear before the Committee to explain further and add to the points we have raised in this document.

Yours in the service for God and Country.

Ing. Nana Sarpong Agyeman-Badu

For OccupyGhana®

Cc:

The Rt. Honourable Speaker

Parliament House

Accra

The Minority Leader

Parliament House

Accra

The Majority Leader