President’s Action Too Little Too Late – CENAB UK

The decision by President John Dramani Mahama to dissolve the Governing Board of the Narcotics Control Board has been described as too little too late by a UK based advocacy group CENAB UK, which is part of a global coalition to elect Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia in 2016. The dissolution of the Governing Board of the State anti-narcotics agency follows the recent arrest at Heathrow Airport, of a Ghanaian Lady, by UK authorities for trafficking 12.5kgs of cocaine to London.

The decision by the President follows a number of futile attempts by the government and its agencies to create a smokescreen in its complicity in this drug smuggling saga. The lady who travelled on a diplomatic passport and who will be arraigned before Uxbridge magistrates Court on Thursday 27th November is well connected in governmental circles. There have been attempts by ministers upon ministers and the NDC propaganda network to deny the fact that the lady is even a Ghanaian let alone come to face the reality of the fact that our security network failed or even aided in the smuggling of the cocaine.

CENAB UK believes that Mahama’s government assisted her in the commission of the crime and that the coup de grace in this attempt to deny the government’s complicity in this matter is when the British High Commission in Ghana issued a statement denying the assertion by NACOB that they collaborated with the UK Border Agency officials. The BHC response clearly suggests that there was no such collaboration and the UK official did not know that Ms Nayele Ametefeh (aka Ruby Adu Gyamfi) was travelling to UK let alone carrying drugs.

Interestingly there have not been any denials of the fact that Ms Ametefeh holds a Ghanaian diplomatic passport, there has also not been any denial of the fact that she used the VVIP lounge and facilities and therefore slipped the net of security searches at Kotoka International Airport. There has also been any denial of the fact that a hand luggage was passed on to her on the tarmac. These series of uncontroverted evidence, according to CENAB UK, undeniably shows the grubby fingers of some high powered government official in this whole saga. CENAB UK has evidence of a visit to Ms Ametefi in remand prison by high powered Ghana High Commission officials from Belgrave Square. This visit raises serious questions as to what the government knows already about this lady and the whole incident. It also raises serious questions on the minds of the British Police and the Crown Prosecution Service here in UK as to why the government of Ghana is so much interested in this particular lady or indeed this particular case.

CENAB UK notes that this is not the first case in UK involving Ghanaians and drug trafficking or indeed Ghanaians who are being tried for whatever reason. However there has never been any case of the Ghana High Commission showing so much empathy in the plight of such Ghanaians as they are showing in the case of Ms Ametefeh.

It is now emerging according to the searches made by CENAB UK that Nayeli Ametefeh has been known to NACOB as a drug smuggler since 2009 and yet she was given a diplomatic passport under NDC administration and assisted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to avoid security searches at the airport. It is now becoming clear that NACOB official who have been frustrated in performing their duties due to high profile governmental interventions are now singing like canaries.

CENAB UK calls on the President to stop at nothing short of dismissing the boss of NACOB Mr Yaw Akrasi Sarpong and calling for a full judicial inquiry into this saga. Anything short of this will amount to papering over cracks in our war over drug trafficking. Dismissing the board amounts to scratching around the boil without lancing it.

CENAB UK is reasonably worried about surreptitious attempts by the Presidency to sponsor the passage of an Extradition Bill in time to repatriate Ms Ametefi to Ghana to serve her sentence, should she be found guilty. We are therefore appealing to our law makers to remain vigilant and not allow any laws of retrospective effect to be added to our laws. Such law will be bad and inimical to our social justice. CENAB UK plans to be at the trial and relay all developments to the Ghanaian public. Stay tuned

SOURCE: CENAB UK (An affiliate of CENAB USA & GHANA) (EMAIL: cenabuk@gmail.com)