The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) is the internal intelligence agency of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

.The Security and Intelligence Agencies Act (Act 526) 1996, Ghana. The BNI is an integral part of the National Security Council which oversees matters of the

counterintelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ...

and

internal security Internal security is the act of keeping peace within the borders of a sovereign state or other self-governing territories, generally by upholding the national law and defending against internal security threats. Responsibility for internal secu ...

. The BNI has investigative

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...

to arrest or detain and

interrogate Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful infor ...

over a wide range of criminal offenses. Among the duties of the Bureau of National Investigations are dealing with

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

and

financial crime Financial crime is crime committed against property, involving the unlawful conversion of the ownership of property (belonging to one person) to one's own personal use and benefit. Financial crimes may involve fraud ( cheque fraud, credit card fra ...

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

, hijacking,

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

, drug trafficking and providing

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be des ...

to counter threats to Ghana's national security and also perform such other functions as may be directed by the President or the council. The BNI is legally a creature of, ''The Security and Intelligence Agencies Act (Act 526) 1996'', having been continued in existence by Section 10 of that Act. The BNI has undisclosed offices in all the sixteen regions of Ghana . In November 2020 the name was officially changed to the National Intelligence Bureau.

History

During Ghana's decolonization, it obtained

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

's help in setting up two intelligence services: The Foreign Service Research Bureau (external intelligence) and the Special Branch (domestic intelligence).

Organization

The Bureau of National Investigations, previously known as the "Special Branch," is a

and

agency, composed of civilian personnel whose role is to establish close surveillance over opponents of the Republic of Ghana and the Government of Ghana.Ghana: Information on the Bureau of National Investigations and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)
/ref> The BNI has power to

and detain people whom they suspect of subversion without

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...

indefinitely, on grounds of national security of the Republic of Ghana. The BNI has overriding statutory authority over other security services The organization investigates crimes of any shape or form as enshrined in the constitution of Ghana.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bureau Of National Investigations Ghanaian intelligence agencies Law enforcement agencies of Ghana Government of Ghana