For close to two years now, Ghana has been in the news both locally and internationally as one of the transit points for narcotic drugs in Africa and the world as a whole. During the period under review several narcotic drugs, especially cocaine have been seized at both our sea and airports across the country.
The government, in its attempt to deal with the situation, sought the assistance of our colonial masters, the British government. This led to the introduction of Operation West Bridge whereby British officials collaborated with their counterparts in Ghana to check the activities of these drug peddlers who were gradually denting the good image of this country. Ever since the operation began, drug-related cases seem to have reduced in frequency.
But a report we carried in our last week Friday edition suggested that the fight against the menace had slackened few days after the British experts had left Ghana, leaving the operations in the hands of the Ghanaians they had trained during their stay. As we reported, even though some of the drugs managed to escape the security personnel at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), they were always arrested when they arrived in London.
The British High Commission in Accra is already expressing concern about the emerging trend since they have pumped about 250,000 pounds of their taxpayers' money into the operation. Both the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) that have been tasked to fight against the menace cited various excuses to justify the slack in their operations.
Whilst NACOB claimed it had no control over parcels going through our postal system, CEPS also said a sniffer dog that was brought to them consumed so much food to the extent that they had to return it since they could not feed it. The Chronicle considers the explanations given by the two bodies as not only laughable, but also as an insult to the intelligence of Ghanaians.
How much food could that dog consume a day that the government of Ghana could not afford? This laughable claim can never be heard in any developed country except in Ghana. Since it was the government that set the fight against the drug menace in motion, did the CEPS officials inform the sector ministry about their decision to return the dog because they could not feed it? And, if yes, what was the response of the ministry? Ghanaians demand to have answers to these questions.
NACOB was also set up by law to fight against illicit drugs dealings. Therefore, they have the constitutional mandate to fight against all forms of illicit drugs. The Chronicle is therefore surprised with excuse that they did not have control over parcels going through our postal system. Another dangerous thing was their claim that if a bomb was planted in a parcel, they could not detect it. This means that Ghanaians and our foreign friends are traveling at the mercy of God.
We do not have the evidence to suggest that there is a wrong motive behind the slack in the fight against drugs, but the flimsy excuses given by the two respected institutions seem to lend credence to public perception that some of the officials are profiting from the system. We are saying this because no serious law enforcement agency will come out with such an excuse that they have returned a sniffer dog because they can not feed it. Is it not the same kind of dog that the British security agencies are using in their airports? We call on the government to institute a probe into the whole affair to unearth the truth surrounding the claim being made by the two law enforcement agencies.
We also call on the government to provide modern equipment to help in the fight. In countries such as Mexico and USA, the security agencies have the necessary equipment at the check-in points and boarding gates in all their international airports. We also need to adapt to this changing world.
