The government would not relent in its determination to get to the bottom of the cocaine scandal and find lasting solution to the problem after the publication of the report of the Justice Georgina Wood Commission in the on-going enquiry into the cocaine scandal in which top security officials in the country have been mentioned.
This is because it is taking a very serious view of the illicit drug situation in the country that is gradually dragging the good name of the country into disrepute.
Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK, Mr. Annan Cato who made the disclosure noted that the government is very much concern about the many illicit drug cases associated with Ghanaians in and out side the country.
The Ghanaian envoy was addressing the 12th annual Euro-Ghanaian Seventh Day Adventist Camp Meeting at Ascot in England.
Nearly 700 Ghanaian Seventh-day Adventists from the UK, Austria, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland and Belgium attended the five-day congress. There were also delegations from US and Ghana.
The meeting which was under the theme, ‘Living what we Believe’ was aimed among other things to take stock of the activities of the Ghanaian Adventists Churches in Europe and adopt new strategies to ensure a ladder church growth as well as examining the churches’ contribution to the socio-economic development in Ghana.
Participants also took time to access their individual spiritual growth against the background of the believe that morally good citizens make good and prosperous nation.
Mr Cato said Ghana has reached enviable socio-economic as well as political heights in the eyes of the international community but the recent rampant media stories about Ghanaians involvement in drug problems is very much discouraging.
He noted that drug pushing, trafficking and the use of it by Ghanaians is a disgrace to the nation adding that the rich Ghanaian culture does not permit that.
He associated the problem to the bad attitude of a few Ghanaians who want to be rich overnight without working. He noted that ‘the best way to get rich is not to deal in drugs or any negative vices but to work hard’
He said most people who indulge in what he described as shameful acts do not only to themselves and their families and relations into awkward situations but also embarrass people of the country especially those living outside the country.
He explained that no poor person has been identified or arrested for dealing in drugs. So poverty cannot be cited as an acceptable excuse for people to deal in drugs.
Mr Cato said recently there have been a number of drug cases involving Ghanaians in the UK adding that there is the need for organisations like the church to help arrest the situation. He therefore appealed to the church to use the pulpit to discourage people from dealing in drugs.
The envoy congratulated the Seventh-day Adventist Church for involvement in the socio economic development in Ghana. He cited the areas of education and health where according to him the church has outclassed and urged the church to do more to help provide more social infrastructure for the people.
The Executive Secretary of the World-wide Seventh-day Adventist church, Pastor Dr. Matthew Bediako urged the members to humble themselves since the best way to achieve greatness is humility.
He congratulated the church members in Europe, for their immense contribution towards the development of the Valley View University, in Accra.
For the past three years member Ghanaian Seventh-day Adventist members living in Europe have contributed to provide boarding facilities worth millions of dollars at the university.
