Mahama’s gov’t complicit in Nayele cocaine scandal – NPP

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) believes President John Mahama’s government had a hand in the Nayele Ametefeh cocaine business.

The 32-year-old mother of three was convicted of drug trafficking Tuesday after being busted with 12kg of cocaine at the Heathrow Airport, having used the VVIP Lounge of the Kotoka International Airport.

She is to spend eight years and eight months in jail after pleading guilty. She told the court through her counsel that she had been protected by “people in high places” since 2004 in her drug business.

The main opposition party, in a statement issued by its director of communications, Nana Akomea, is arguing that the ruling National Democratic Congress government has a question to answer.

Below is the full statement:

Nayele Ametefeh cocaine scandal…IS PRESIDENT MAHAMA’s GOVERNMENT COMPLICIT?

Nayele Amatefeh was yesterday sentenced to eight years, eight months in a London Court. The testimony by her lawyer included the statement that Nayele was aided by powerful people back home in Ghana. This revelation raises pertinent questions.

1. How was Mrs. Ametefeh able to access the VVIP/Presidential transit lounge at the Kotoka International Airport?

2. How was she able to carry over 12kg of Cocaine in her hand luggage through the VVIP/Presidential transit lounge?

3. What gave her the confidence that she could carry that amount of cocaine in her hand luggage through Heathrow airport as she had done at the Kotoka International Airport?

4. Why was she arrested by the British Border Agency on the aircraft and not allowed to disembark? Did the British Border control suspect that she was not going to pass through the airport?

5. Is it mere coincidence that there was a Ghana High Commission diplomatic car on the tarmac to pick someone?

6. Why the seemingly confusion in government over bits of the story: NACOB, a government agency asserted that it was in the know about the arrest, only to be flatly debunked by the British authorities; The Attorney General charge sheet alluding to her transit through the VVIP/Presidential lounge, only to be reaffirmed that she indeed travelled through the VVIP/Presidential transit lounge

7. Why have persons who government has charged with abetment of Nayele Ametefeh cocaine saga been admitted to bail in Ghana?

8. What steps would Ghana government take to ascertain the so called powerful personalities in Ghana who were alluded in court to have supported Nayele Ametefeh?

Recently in the MV Benjamin Cocaine case in April, 2007, the then NDC in opposition blamed the lapses of NACOB on the government of the day. Subsequent actions of the government of the day, such as a setting up of a Ministerial committee to investigate, the successful prosecution of seven people, etc, were all pooh-poohed by the NDC in opposition, as cosmetic and insincere. The NDC in opposition concluded that the government at that time was complicit in the MV Benjamin case and other cases.

By the same standard, the massive lapses, omissions and commissions in the Nayele Ametefe scandal, at the very least, by the NDC’s own standard in opposition, makes President Mahama’s NDC government complicit in this Nayele Ametefeh cocaine scandal.

Ghanaians await further developments.

…Signed… Nana Akomea (Director of Communications)