Narcotic Committee mandate expired - NDC

Accra, Aug. 8, GNA - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Tuesday said the mandate of Justice Georgina Woode Committee had expired since it was established on July 3 2006 and given one-month to complete its work.

The Committee is investigating the suspected loss of parcels of narcotic drugs from a seized ship and allegations of bribery levelled against some Police officers with respect to the seizure of narcotic drugs at East Legon in Accra.

According to the NDC, the Minister of the Interior, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah announced the setting up of a five-member committee on July 3 to investigate the two narcotic drug cases and, therefore, its mandate expired on August 2 2006.

Dr Ben Kunbuor, NDC Member of Parliament for Lawra Nandom, said this at a press conference in Accra on the ongoing investigations into the disappearance of narcotic drugs and the allegations of bribery. He called on Mr Kan-Dapaah to immediately rectify the anomaly by either renewing the mandate of the Georgina Woode Committee or the Government should set-up a bipartisan Parliamentary Committee with a broader mandate to let the outside world know that as a country anybody found culpable in the cocaine saga would not be spared.

The Ministry of the Interior in a statement establishing the Committee explained that the Narcotics Control Board (NCB), acting upon intelligence information that a ship on the high seas was suspected to be carrying narcotics drugs, intercepted the vessel on April 27, 2006 with the assistance of the Ghana Navy.

The statement said officials of the NCB conducted a search on the vessel and discovered a leather bag containing 30 slabs of a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine. This was seized and taken to the headquarters for safekeeping.

"Intelligence information is that originally, there were about 78 parcels in the vessel with each parcel containing 30 kilograms of cocaine.

"This suggests that 77 parcels of cocaine each weighing 30 kilograms were taken out of the vessel just before it was intercepted." The statement said the Committee would, among other things, find out the person or persons who brought the parcels on board the vessel and determine the actual numbers of narcotic drug parcels on the vessel immediately before it was intercepted.

It was also to determine whether some of the parcels on board the vessel were removed from it before it was intercepted, and, if so, to establish when and how this happened and recommend appropriate punishment.

The Committee was also to determine the whereabouts of the parcels of narcotic drugs, if any, which were removed from the vessel and to investigate any other issues relating to the loss of the narcotic drug and to make recommendations on how to avoid them in future. In the second case, the Committee was to investigate various allegations of bribery levelled against some Police Officers with respect to the seizure of a quantity of narcotic drugs at East Legon in Accra and to advise on appropriate actions against any person or persons found culpable.

The members of the Committee chaired by Mrs Georgina Woode, Supreme Court Judge, are Mr Kwaku Duah, Deputy Director of Bureau of National Investigations; Ms Jemima Mograbi, a lawyer; Mr Ransford Tetteh, President of the Ghana Journalists Association and Mr Abraham Ossei-Aidooh, Member of Parliament for Tema West.