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Veep: Government taking measures to stamp
put drug trade
Accra, April 15, Ghanadot/GNA –
Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday announced
that government was adopting additional measures to tackle
and stamp out the drug trade in Ghana.
As part of the measures, the Narcotics Control Board is to
be restructured under a new management and scanners are to
be placed at the export and import points to detect any
hidden illegal drug in containers.
Vice President Mahama announced the measures when Mr
Bernardino Leon, Secretary General to the Presidency of the
Spanish government, led a five-man delegation to pay a
courtesy call on him at the Castle, Osu, in Accra.
The Vice President solicited the assistance of the Spanish
government to deal with the drug trade in Ghana and said the
nation would need both logistics and expert assistance to
deal with it head-on.
Vice President Mahama said some of the illegal narcotic
drugs that came into Ghana were in containers but less than
10 per cent of containers were scanned.
He also spoke on the possibility of training sniff dogs to
detect any hidden narcotic drug.
The Vice President spoke on a wide range of areas
of collaboration between the two countries mentioning
agriculture and transfer of technical assistance to Ghana.
He said agriculture was one of the priority areas of
government which had become more necessary because of the
current global food crisis.
Vice President Mahama said Ghana made a huge net of food
imports in excess of over one billion dollars and appealed
to Spain to assist Ghana to expand agricultural farm land.
Consequently, there is the need to move away from rain-fed
agriculture to all round irrigation and expand farmlands in
order to meet the food needs of the nation.
He spoke of the Alliance for Green Revolution headed by Mr
Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, under which 25
million dollars had been devoted to the development of the
agricultural sector.
Mr Leon said Spain was happy to strengthen its collaboration
with Ghana and the areas discussed would be considered for
necessary action.
He lauded the ties between the two nations and pledged the
assistance of Spain to help stamp out the narcotics trade in
Ghana.
GNA
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