Ex-drug convict Eric Amoateng not NACOB employee - NACOB

The Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) has denied claims that former Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North, Eric Amoateng, who was jailed in the US for narcotic offences, is one of their employees.

While reports on social media and other news portals claimed the ex-drug convict has been appointed a member of the governing board of NACOB, others alleged the president was considering him as a member of the board.

A statement from the NACOB Wednesday however, rubbished the claims, stating that the former MP is neither a staff nor a board member of NACOB as being peddled about in some quarters.

“NACOB wishes to inform the general public that Mr., Eric Amoateng is not within the employ of NACOB, neither is he a member of the governing board,” it said.

Describing the claims as “untrue”, NACOB urged the public to treat it with the contempt that it deserves.

Mr. Amoateng was on December 11, 2005 arrested in US for narcotic offences. He was convicted of possession of heroin and subsequently 10 years which he served in a US prison.

The former New Patriotic Party MP was released from prison on July 30, 2014 and subsequently returned to Ghana in 2014.

He was arrested on his arrival by officials of NACOB for what they termed ‘debriefing’ but was later charged for criminal offence. According to State prosecutors, he was in possession of a passport issued to him at the time that he was in US jail.

Prosecutors questioned how the former MP managed to apply for the passport with the number H2347080 issued in Accra on February 23, 2009, at a time that he was in prison. They concluded the document was forged.

But in July 2016, he was acquitted by the Accra High Court on the charge of forged documents.

The court held the prosecution failed to adduce enough evidence to warrant conviction, noting the prosecutors could not prove Mr. Amoateng was aware that the documents were forged.