NPP demands sacking of top NACOC, airport officials over cocaine seizures

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on President John Mahama to immediately sack the heads of the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and National Security over a series of major cocaine seizures linked to Ghana.

Addressing a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Accra on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, Second National Vice Chairman Henry Nana Boakye (Nana B) said Ghana is fast becoming a “cocaine coast” under the current administration.

He cited at least 14 major cocaine and drug busts between March 2025 and October 2026, with an estimated street value of between US$1.3 billion and US$1.7 billion. Seven of the seizures occurred on Ghanaian soil (about 3.6 tonnes), while more than 12 tonnes traced to Ghana were intercepted abroad in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Dunkirk and Beirut.

The latest incident, on 31 October 2026, saw Lebanese authorities arrest a Syrian national arriving from Accra with 46.7 kilograms of cocaine in two suitcases. Nana B questioned NACOC’s claim that the seizure was part of a controlled delivery, noting inconsistencies in official accounts and the absence of any joint confirmation from Lebanese authorities.

“A single passenger walked through Accra with nearly 47 kilograms of cocaine, packed by professionals and fitted with tracking devices. That is not the work of a lone courier. It is the signature of an organised cartel that is confident in its route through Ghana,” he said.

The NPP demanded a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into all Ghana-linked seizures since January 2025, publication of the inter-agency task force roadmap promised after the Dunkirk bust, the names and charges of any persons arrested in connection with the Beirut case, and the arrest of officials alleged to have taken bribes at Accra airport.

“Fourteen busts. Billions of dollars in cocaine. Ghana’s name in the headlines from Amsterdam to Beirut. And yet every appointee remains at post, untouched and unbothered,” Nana B stated. “This government appears perfectly comfortable with Ghana’s new reputation as a COCAINE COAST.”

He insisted that “inaction on this scale is not incompetence. It is complicity,” and called on the government to “act now, before the next seizure abroad carries the name of Ghana again.”

NA/AM