NACOB did work with UK authorities on cocaine bust – ex Board Chair

The outgoing Chairman of the governing Board of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Naval Captain Baffour Assasie-Gyimah (rtd) has insisted there was collaboration between the anti-drug agency and UK authorities in the arrest of Ghanaian drug trafficker Nayele Ametefeh at London’s Heathrow Airport on November 9/10, 2014.

President John Mahama dissolved the NACOB governing Board following a denial by UK authorities, through their High Commission in Ghana, that there was collaboration with the Ghanaian agency in the arrest of Ametefeh, contrary to the claims of NACOB in a statement signed by its Deputy Executive Secretary Richard Nii Lante Blankson.

According to the NACOB statement, Ametefeh “was arrested on the 10th of November, 2014 through the collaborative effort of Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and its British partners.”

The UK High Commission countered that claim with a statement that said: “UK authorities had no prior knowledge of the intentions of Ms Nayele Ametefeh before flying from Accra to London on 9/10 November.”

Ghana’s Communications Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, also challenged NACOB to prove it collaborated with UK authorities to make the arrest.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Assasie-Gyimah said: “I need to say that the statement issued by the Deputy Executive Secretary of NACOB, which stated among other matters that in the case of the lady suspect etc., there was collaborative effort between NACOB and its British partners, cannot be doubted.”

“I have become privy to hard evidence on it. Indeed as at yesterday, the 22nd day of November, 2014, the collaboration was still on-going and it was yielding very startling results. I will leave that for now. It is for these reasons that I fully support my said officer and I as Chairman of the Board have taken full responsibility for his position,” the retired Naval Captain said.

“On matters of collaboration between partners in the drug war, one would have wished he does not talk about them in public. However in certain situations one would have to give praise to your collaborators and also warn drug lords to take note that the war on them is universal and not merely homegrown where they may succeed in influencing some local officials.”

As far as the UK High Commissioner’s statement is concerned, Assasie-Gyimah said: “I must also admit that his statement to the effect that the British authorities had no prior information about the suspect’s travel to London with drugs could very well be true. That in itself also does not necessarily mean that there was no collaboration between partners here in Ghana on the matter.”

“Official tip-offs may not be the only tools for collaboration. In matters like this, even knowledgeable people who are not directly involved may rightly assume certain positions only because they are limited to only what they see. It is just like the proverbial blind man touching the trunk of the elephant and thinking the whole big beast is a snake!” he noted.