THURSDAY, 5.00PM
GHANA has expelled a senior United States diplomat for “activities unacceptable for a diplomat”. Nicolas Robertson, head of US Information Service in Accra, appears to have intervened in the trial of two independent newspaper editors, on charge for libel after accusing government officials of dealing in drugs to buy arms.
The acting Ghanaian foreign minister, Kwamena Ahwoi, said on Wednesday that the government had reason to believe that Robertson had a personal agenda unrelated to his mandate as a US diplomat. The state-owned Graphic newspaper accused Robertson of attempting to “blackmail” former Information Minister, Kofi Totobi Quakyi over the drugs-for-arms story.
The US embassy said: “While we have no choice but to comply with the government’s wishes, we have made clear our unhappiness with the public attacks on Mr Robertson and our rejection of the reasons put forward by the government.”