OFDFA urges ECOWAS to combat drug trafficking in Africa

The Organization For Drugs-Free Africa (OFDFA), has urged leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to deliberate on security challenges in the sub-region, at their two-day Summit in Accra, to take pragmatic steps to deal with the rising drug menace in Africa.

A press release to the Ghana News Agency and signed by Mr Evans Eduse-Opoku, President of OFDFA, said drug trafficking in the sub-region posed a serious security threat to Africa.

The statement said a research conducted by the organization and backed by intelligence reports, indicates that drug cartels now use canoes of fishermen to offload illicit drugs on the high seas, to outwit drug enforcement agencies in the sub-region, especially in the Gulf of Guinea.

It said the time for ECOWAS leaders to act on the drug scourge is now; therefore “If something is not done quickly to address drug trafficking in West Africa and elsewhere on the continent, our youth would risk the danger of becoming addicts and a wasted generation.”

“The end result is that drug monies are used to fund terrorist groups, like Boko Haram and AL-Shabab, to wreak havoc and insecurity on innocent African citizens,” the statement regretted. The statement pointed out that Africa cannot continue to be used by drug barons and foreign collaborators as safe haven for illicit drugs.

OFDFA said it had confidence in ECOWAS leaders to rise up to the challenges posed by drug-trafficking, and asked them to take collective and bold action to curb the menace.

It said, according to a survey conducted by the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), recent media reports reveal that about 75% of Junior High and Senior High Students in the Ashanti Region use drugs, which according to the organization, is an unhealthy situation which cuts across the entire African continent.

“Africa cannot win the current terrorists war by using conventional weapons without our leaders taking serious measures to deal with the drug problem,” it said.

The statement intimated that OFDFA in partnership with the international donor groups, had instituted the Africa Excellence Leadership Awards on Anti-Drugs, to honour four African leaders who show commitment to the drugs war with a prize money of 500,000 dollars each, every two years, to encourage them fight against drugs.

The organization has also conferred the status of honorary life patrons on all past and sitting African leaders, the statement concluded.