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Press Release
NPP
November 26, 2014
STATEMENT BY THE MINORITY NEW
PATRIOTIC PARTY GROUP IN PARLIAMENT ON DRUG TRAFFICKING
SCANDALS IN GHANA.
INTRODUCTION:
On the 16th November, 2014, many Ghanaians across the world
got wind of a major arrest and scandal at the Heathrow
Airport in the United Kingdom regarding the carrying of
narcotics weighing 12 kilograms, worth about £3.5million or
$5million through the Kotoka International Airport (K.I.A).
The Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) has confirmed that one
young lady was arrested on the 10th November, 2014. Many
days after the arrest, the Government of Ghana was forced to
admit the scandal. The lady has many aliases, many passports
and presumably used the VVIP lounge at the KIA to board her
fateful flight out of this country.
The arrest of Nayele Ametefe, also known as Ruby Adu-Gyamfi,
Ruby Appiah or Angel said to be a holder of Austrian and
Ghanaian passports among others is the latest in the string
of arrests of persons going abroad with narcotic drugs from
Ghana. This arrest raises critical issues and questions.
In his 2011 State of the Nation Address, President JEA Mills
stated on pages 25 and 26 of that address thus: “In the wake
of startling revelations about the unacceptable extent to
which Ghana is used as a major link in the drug trade, I
have decided that a full scale investigation into the
disappearance of cocaine from the police vault as well as
the 77 parcels of cocaine which entered Ghana’s territorial
waters aboard the MV Benjamin Vessel and mysteriously got
missing should be re-opened…….. We will not relent in our
fight against narcotics trade and I believe that the
majority of Ghanaians are not happy not to be waking up to
daily stories of cocaine here, cocaine there and cocaine
everywhere. We will continue to make Ghana an unattractive
destination for the narcotics trade and will collaborate
fully with cross-border and other foreign operatives to
flush out the drug barons and their couriers”.
MAJOR CASES AT K.I.A AND TEMA PORT:
We recall that in the past few years very high-profile cases
involving Ghanaians in respect of carrying narcotics through
K.I.A to other countries in Europe and to the United States
of America have been reported.
A. For instance, on April 19, 2012 seven drug suspects were
arrested by the FBI and US authorities for allegedly
importing 3.7 kilograms of heroin into the United States.
B. In September 2012, the biggest cannabis haul from Ghana
with the street market value of £4.3 million was seized at
the Heathrow Airport. It was the biggest seizure at Heathrow
in recent years.
C. Within days, on September 25, 2012 British officials
announced that they had intercepted a consignment of cocaine
weighing 7.8 kg concealed in plantains. That was when the
NACOB Executive Secretary, Mr. Akrasi Sarpong, said he will
bear responsibility for security lapses at the KIA leading
to the smuggling of narcotics from Ghana. He even said he
was contemplating handing in his resignation letter.
Indeed, the then National Security Coordinator, Col.(Rtd)
Gbevlo Lartey stated in an interview with the media that
Akrasi Sarpong “will not resign today, he will not resign
tomorrow” even after it was conceded that NACOB officials
had vacated the Airport during the export of the consignment
at the Aviance cargo at KIA and that “the men and systems”
put in place had failed.
D. The mother of all scandals was to follow when the
Managing Director of Sohin Security Services Limited,
Solomon Adelaquaye who was responsible for aspects of
security details at KIA was arrested on May 9, 2013 for drug
trafficking and got indicted at the New York District Court
on a charge of conspiracy to import heroin into the United
States.
The head of the security company at the KIA and other
Airports, had agreed to allow 3,000 kilograms of cocaine
valued at $25,000 per kilogram to be delivered to the United
States in multiple shipments of 25 Kilograms each.
E. It is not far-fetched to conclude that the reality is
that security at our entry points is very loose and this led
to the bringing into Ghana by two Nigerians in January, 2013
cocaine estimated to be 200 kilograms at the street value of
$12million concealed in a 40-footer container from Bolivia.
F. Indeed Fatimatu Abdulai of the Procurement unit of NACOB
was arrested in October, 2011 and during interrogation was
said to have admitted the offence of aiding suspected drug
dealers to import and export narcotic drugs through the KIA.
She mentioned some NACOB officials and personnel of other
security agencies as accomplices who compromised their
positions and allowed drug couriers safe passage after
receiving various sums of money from them.
THE NAYELE AMETEFEH AFFAIR
1. The Nayele Ametefeh affair is not only a sordid matter
but one that is still surrounded in mystery. The saga seems
to be thickening. Thus far there have been several
contradictory reports. Soon after the new broke out of the
arrest of the character in question there appeared to be a
mad rush to clean up the act. That explains why the Ghana’s
High Commission to the UK, Ambassador Victor Smith spoke on
several radio channels and stated his concern and discomfort
and was indeed frantic in having access to the narcotics
lady in prison custody while complaining that the UK
authorities failed to inform him of the arrest. The question
remains, how many Ghanaians who have been arrested have been
visited by our ambassadors and high commissioners.
2. Next was the statement by the Narcotics Control Board
hurriedly scripted and signed by the Deputy Executive
Secretary Mr. Richard Nii Lante Blankson which categorically
stated among other things that Nayele Ametefe also known as
Ruby Adu-Gyamfi, alias Ruby Appiah or, as many do attest to,
also as Ruby Mahama aka Angel “was arrested on the 10th of
November, 2014 through the collaborative effort of the
Narcotics Control Board and its British partners”. This
statement, laughable as it was, stood for some time in spite
of the doubts raised by all men and women of conscience.
3. Then the British High Commission in Ghana waded in with a
disclaimer given the repugnance of the statement by NACOB.
Their statement was crisp and came without any
prevarication. According to them they expected NACOB to have
arrested the ‘Angel’ woman “in Accra and not to have
permitted her to board a flight (to London) in order to
traffic in drugs”. Continuing, the Brits strongly asserted
that they (UK authorities), had no prior information on the
“intentions of Ms. Nayele Ametefe before flying from Accra
to London on 9/10 November 2014”. In other words, nobody
gave them any hint.
4. Enter Dr. Omani Boamah at this stage who in a face-saving
volte-face then denied the version of NACOB. Surprisingly,
the Minister shifted the burden of proof onto the British
authorities when he said UK should show proof that Nayele
Ametefeh travelled on a diplomatic passport. Why not ask the
Ghana Immigration Officers at KIA? Before Dr. Omane Boamah’s
intrusion the Executive Secretary of NACOB Mr. Akrasi
Sarpong had stated that he did not author NACOB’s statement
and insisted that whoever authored that statement should be
held accountable.
5. The next move was for government to dissolve the
governing board of NACOB. It is important to observe how the
Daily Graphic, the national daily disingenuously put the
dissolution of NACOB Board in the belly of a story relating
to the creation of a new Power Ministry (ref. to page 16 of
Daily Graphic, Monday November 24, 2014). Are all these
parts of the jigsaw of official complicity?
6. The resort to propaganda by NACOB should be distressing
to Ghana. It takes time and painstaking effort to build and
nurture trust between and among countries in the fight
against narcotics, money laundering, the financing of
terrorism, illegal bunkering, human trafficking etc… Now,
with this singular bungling of such bad case NACOB has
succeeded in shredding the reputation of Ghana into pieces.
7. We are now being told that the Bureau of National
Investigations (BNI) has caused the arrest of three persons,
including an Assistant Director of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Regional Integration, for facilitating the
narcotic transaction.
8. The officers of National Security and Foreign Affairs are
alleged to have secured the VVIP lounge for Miss Ametefeh
and two other ladies, escorted them to the Aircraft to evade
search and detection.
RHETORICS AND EMPTY ASSURANCES
This embarrassing episode cannot be swept under the carpet.
This Government, through the late President Mills stated on
the 19th February 2009 in the State of the Nation address
that it was making “a firm commitment to stamp out drug
trafficking through and from the country.” The Government
said it was aiming “to create a more potent drug enforcement
agency to arrest and prosecute offenders.”
Throughout the nearly six years of the NDC government, we
have been fed with promises, rhetorics and empty assurances
about fighting the drug menace and strengthening
institutions and drug enforcement agencies.
The good people of Ghana should be the best judges regarding
the assurances and what has been happening in the past five
years;
1. President John Mahama on Thursday, February 21, 2013
delivering his State of the Nation address claimed that he
is “firmly committed in ensuring that Ghana is absolutely
insulated from the illicit drug trade”(page 24).
2. President Mahama repeated an earlier promise made by the
late President Mills by stating that the Government “will
pursue programme for legislative conversion of the Narcotics
Control Board (NACOB) into an autonomous Commission”.
3. According to President Mahama, his Government “will also
continue to strengthen the inter-agency coordination
mechanism involving NACOB, the Custom Division of the Ghana
Revenue Authority, the Police, the BNI, the Food and Drugs
Authority, Aviation Security and Immigration Service and
ensure increased international cooperation, especially for
surveillance”.
4. These same assurances are repeated in the President’s
state of the Nation address on 26th February, 2014 in which
he states: “high on the government’s priority is the fight
against the trafficking in and use of illicit drugs”. He
claims again that “a draft Narcotic Control Commission Bill”
has been initiated.
In the 2015 Budget Statement and Economic policy of the
Government, what the government says is that the Narcotics
Control Board “will organize sensitization programmes for
MMDA’s and schools as well as TV and Radio talk shows. The
Board will organise special operations for interdiction,
running of informants, strengthen Inter-Agency collaboration
and continue to monitor and control precursor chemicals.”
On the face of it these are noble declarations. The
difficulty has been how to translate these pontifications
into concrete, practical terms. Action, they say, speaks
louder than words.
There are Questions begging for answers:
1. Why has NACOB the mandated agency thus far maintained a
stony silence and allowed the ministry responsible for
information to misinform the country?
2. What has happened to the 2006 Operation Westbridge
Collaboration between Ghana and the United Kingdom which in
2010 the Guardian newspaper of UK stated had become beset by
corruption?
3. Why did government resort to the knee-jerk reaction of
dissolving the Board of NACOB whilst leaving the field
operatives?
4. Who wrote the false statement
which was signed by the Deputy Executive Secretary about the
collaboration between NACOB and the UK security agents which
turned out to be, as has become usual of this government, a
mere propaganda gimmick?
5. What has become of those who authored and signed the
manipulated information which has turned out to be a
choreographed lie?
6. How did it become possible for the cocaine lady to use
the VVIP lounge of Kotoka International Airport?
7. By what arrangement was she able to get the cocaine into
the plane without being detected by all the security
operatives at the airport?
8. If the purpose of NACOB’s lie was to ride on the back of
a credible partner to prevent any local inquisition into the
Nayele Ametefeh cocaine scandal, then the question to ask is
whose bidding was NACOB doing, was the Mahama government
behind the NACOB’s deception?
9. Late yesterday evening, the Minister of Foreign Affairs
in an interview stated that Ruby Ametefeh had been
interviewed and had made some startling revelations. The
question arises, who in what capacity interviewed her and
who were present at the interview?
10. The Minister of Foreign Affairs averred that some people
- “airport officials” carried the substance which she,
Ametefeh, believed to be gold. Who are the people, the
airport officials, who carried the substance to her in her
first class cabin.
11. The Minister confirmed that two other girls were with
Nayele Ametefeh; that all three used the VVIP lounge at KIA.
Who are the two other girls. Their identities which would
have been captured by the CCTV at the VVIP lounge should be
revealed.
12. The Minister of Foreign Affairs indicated that the other
two ladies carried 5 kilograms of cocaine. How did the
Minister know this? The two ladies, unlike Nayele Ametefeh
knew that the substance they were carrying was cocaine and
not gold, Minister?
13. The jitters and the convulsion that have afflicted the
NDC in this Nayele Ametefeh VVIP cocaine saga is simply
frightening even though one would have thought that it is
such occasions that require cool heads and not hot-headed
bellicosity. The nation watches in wild amazement the
philippic responses from government functionaries: a tale of
two cabinet Ministers and two deputy ministers. All this is,
unfortunately, not comical to a nation in deep financial and
economic distress, it is a macabre dance involving who the
gods want to destroy by first making mad.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are indeed more questions than
answers in this national embarrassment. In this particular
case it appears the more you look the less you see.
GOING FORWARD
1. If government wants to be taken seriously on the war
against Narcotics, it must act swiftly and decisively by
totally overhauling NACOB. We demand nothing less than this.
2. Government should immediately re-engage the UK and USA
security agencies to reconstruct the collaboration in the
fight against narcotics. Any Ghanaian official who is caught
tampering with the equipment or collaborating with the drug
couriers and barons should be decisively dealt with.
3. The Draft Bill to turn NACOB into a Commission prepared
in 2008 which has not yet been submitted to Parliament in
spite of assurance from the Presidency since 2009 must be
presented to Parliament immediately.
4. The position of the Executive Secretary of NACOB which
has since 2009 reverted to the hands of politicians instead
of being in the hands of professionals and intelligence
operatives must go back to the latter to enhance efficiency
and curb patronizing attitude of officials.
5. Finally, the unfolding events in the VVIP cocaine saga
and the responses from the key government operatives
including the Minister of Communications and the Minister of
Foreign Affairs call for the intervention of Parliament. In
the circumstances, we call for the constitution of a
bipartisan parliamentary committee to investigate this
Nayele Ametefeh cocaine saga that is causing such
haemorrhage to this blessed nation of ours.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media thank you very much indeed
for this prompt response to our invitation.
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