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Mixed reactions over President Akufo Addo's deployment of troops to Gambia

Military action comes as West African states ramp up pressure on Yahya Jammeh to step down.

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According to the MP, "When we invest the power in this country in the President to be the Commander and Chief, we expect him to exercise this power with the best of his intentions, not capriciously."

This comes as regional forces massed at the border to force incumbent Yahya Jammeh to quit after his election defeat.

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Adama Barrow has been sworn in at the country's embassy in neighbouring Senegal on Thursday 19, 2017.

Gambia's Parliament has adopted a resolution to allow President Yahya Jammeh to stay in power for three more months, starting from Wednesday, just hours before the end of his official term.

Agbodza speaking to Accra-based Citi FM said, President Nana Akufo-Addo should have sought parliamentary approval before deploying the troops.

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"What we are trying to do in Gambia is an offensive action. There is no war currently going on in The Gambia. We are going in there to start a war and I am saying that it amounts to a declaration of war and I think that the Commander-in-Chief needed to consult with the people’s representatives in Parliament before he could take that decision," he said.

He added that, "I haven’t seen anything that suggests that he is exercising his power with the greatest restraint… the constitution tells him to exercise his powers with the best of intentions and I don’t see those best intentions."

But Member of Parliament for Effutu, Alex Afenyo Markin said there is no need for Parliamentary approval to send troops to The Gambia because he [Nana Addo] is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.

He said "under Article 75 of our constituency, where treaties are entered into and same is ratified by Parliament, that treaty becomes part of the international laws of Ghana."

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