The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has alleged that Ghana is increasingly being used as a transit point for illicit drugs, with its National Organiser, Henry Nana Boakye, blaming officials at the country’s ports and airports.
Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, September 22, Mr Boakye alleged that drug traffickers had established bases and clandestine laboratories in Ghana to process narcotics for export.
“Our information is that our country has become a major transit point for illicit drugs, for narcotics. And it’s not by accident, but because of the complicity of officials at our port and our airports,” he said.
He further alleged that some government officials were assisting traffickers to move narcotics out of the country.
“The intelligence we have picked is that these drug lords, these traffickers, they have established bases, laboratories here for processing of illicit drugs and narcotics under the watch of President Mahama,” he said.
Mr Boakye linked the allegations to recent drug seizures involving consignments traced to Ghana in countries including Australia, France and South Africa.
“That is the reason why volumes of drugs traced to Ghana keep surfacing in the holds of ships and the luggage of passengers in Sydney, Dunkirk, and Johannesburg,” he said.
“It is happening here in our home, under the government’s watch,” he added.
The allegations come amid ongoing investigations into recent narcotics trafficking cases involving Ghana’s ports. President John Mahama has directed an inter-agency task force to develop a roadmap to prevent drug trafficking through the country’s borders.
The Presidency has also said 10 people, including four officers of the Ghana Revenue Authority’s Customs Division, were being held as investigations continued.
