General News of 2012-10-02

Gbevlo, Akrasi Sarpong must go – Effah Dartey

A former deputy Minister and Member of Parliament under the Kufuor administration, Capt Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey (Rtd) has called for the sacking of the National Security Coordinator and the Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) for failing to prevent the trafficking of drugs worth over $10 million to the UK.

Border officers at Heathrow Airport made their biggest cannabis seizure in three years on Monday September 24 after containers arriving on a plane from Ghana were found with drugs worth £4.3million.

The drugs, which weighed around 1.5 tonnes and had a street value of £4.3 million, were found in three separate freight containers filled with fresh fruit and vegetables. They were tape-wrapped in compressed packages within boxes on the flight from Accra.

A day later, the UK Border Force found another consignment hidden inside plantains, within a larger freight consignment of fruit and vegetables from Ghana. Officials said the cocaine weighed about 7.5 kg and had a potential street value of £750,000.

Five officials of NACOB have since been arrested, while investigations continue.

However, Capt Effah-Dartey, who once chaired the board of NACOB, says national security coordinator Col Larry Gbevlo Lartey and NACOB Executive Secretary Yaw Akrasi Sarpong should both resign or be fired for dereliction of duty.

Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem morning show on Tuesday October 2, 2012 the former MP for Berekum insisted: “If they can sit and allow $10m worth of drugs to pass out of Ghana they should resign, they should go.”

He called on Mr Akrasi Sarpong to "admit and accept that his whole security and investigative machinery has collapsed," while the man ultimately charged with ensuring the nation’s security is airtight, Col Gbevlo Lartey, had failed to deliver.

“We are losing the drugs war because we rush too much,” he opined, explaining that in other jurisdictions, particularly in America, “they allow new drug mules to operate and trail them to root out the entire link. In Ghana we just arrest them and allow the big people to go scot free.”

He called for a review of the law governing the activities of the nation’s drug fighting body to allow NACOB to prosecute suspected drug traffickers and add muscle to the fight against drug trafficking.

As well, it was important that NACOB reviews its investigative procedures to reflect modern trends, he added.

Nevertheless, “Clearly those who have been charged with the responsibility of fighting the drug trade have failed and must go. The evidence is clear NDC have failed and cannot control the drug trade; vote them out,” he declared.

However, a member of the NDC Communications team, Benjamin Akyena Brantuo, described the former MP's call as reflective of how the NPP views Ghanaians. According to him, Mr Effah-Dartey had all the power and authority to effect the changes he is calling for today when he was in charge of NACOB, and it was "hypocritical" for him to be making such a call today.