Ghana Cannot Be Safe Under Akufo Addo

His Track Record Shows That Cocaine And Crime Would Thrive Under Him

Good Morning ladies and gentlemen of the media and thank you for coming once again. Nana Kofi Coomson, a member of the NPP who nearly contested the party's recent parliamentary primaries in the Effiah Kwesimintsim constituency, told the country some months ago that the people of Ghana will not be safe if Akufo Addo became president. He specifically explained that he could not afford to sleep with his eyes closed if Akufo Addo became president.

What does NPP's Nana Kofi Coomson know that the rest of Ghana need to know?

In the run up to NPP's presidential congress, text messages widely believed to be from NPP party insiders, among other claims warned NPP delegates not to vote for Akufo Addo because an international drug trafficker like Raymond Amankwaa was closely connected with his campaign.

What did the NPP folks who were behind these messages know that the rest of Ghana need to know?

Two principal issues were raised by these NPP sources- -the issue of narcotic drug trafficking and the attendant issue of personal safety and security of the people of Ghana . The Cocaine & Crime Crisis Under The NPP It is no secret that over the last eight years, Ghana has fast become the cocaine hub of the continent.

The cocaine crisis has become so endemic that it is at the moment threatening to undermine the very socio-cultural and political foundations of our nation. Over the last eight years, the Police as an institution has not been spared. The narcotic drug scourge has even gone as high as the top political echelon, and has claimed as its casualty, a guru cum financier of the NPP, Eric Amoateng, who until his arrest and imprisonment in the US was a proud Member of Parliament of the NPP. Kwesi Aning of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre has said that the very fabric of the Ghanaian society is under threat from the drug menace. He states that its not just the Police alone anymore but also Customs, Immigration, the Judiciary and our traditional institutions. So bad has been the drug menace that a recent BBC report indicated that experts are expressing worrying concerns that the ongoing electioneering campaign is suspected to have been heavily tainted by illicit drug. This BBC report would appear to lend credence to a concern earlier expressed by NPP’s Arthur Kennedy during the NPP presidential primaries that the way his colleagues in the NPP were throwing about money, care needed to be taken so as not to make people think that drug financing was involved. Closely connected with this cocaine boomerang has been the unprecedented boom in armed robbery and crime wave all over the nation. There has been an appreciable rise in related crimes of arms and money laundering with detrimental impact on our country. The overall effect of all these has been violence that has been inflicted on people's daily lives, the distortion of economic and commercial activity, the undermining of respect for the rule of law and the serious threat to the peace, security and sustainable development of our nation. Our Youth in particular, who represent an invaluable resource for the future, continue to suffer considerable damage. The current massive youth unemployment crisis makes our young folks particularly vulnerable. There is genuine reason to fear that unless there is a drastic change at the top the battle to keep them from turning to crime, and protecting them from becoming victims of drug abuse and addiction will be lost. It is especially regrettable the way the easy lures of illegal drug profit coupled with NPP’s “Money At All Cost philosophy” are creating conditions that are threatening to erode the long held traditional values that have for generations served as unifying and stabilizing forces. How Akufo Addo Opened Wide The Floodgates Of Cocaine Today, we of the NDC Forum For Setting The Records Straight wish to state unequivocally that Nana Akufo Addo of the NPP has single-handedly through his actions and inactions as Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs helped open wide the floodgates of cocaine and its attendant boom in crime and insecurity in the country. Before we go into specific details, we wish to quickly explain that the issues we raised last week about the imperative need to have high values of truthfulness, credibility, integrity, humility and diligence were issues that were fully discussed on the basis of track record in politics. We hardly discussed anything personal. The issues to be raised today will likewise be fully based on the track record of Nana Akufo Addo. There is nothing illegitimate about subjecting the track record of an aspiring leader to scrutiny. All over the world this is an acceptable practice; and why not, especially when such an individual aspires to be in charge of the destinies of 22 million people and the vast resources of our dear nation. NPP’s pathetic claim that our issues about their candidate constitutes personal attack should therefore be viewed as an attempt by the party to mask the obvious character defects of its candidate and make it difficult for the people to know the full record of the man who aspires to lead the country. Why Did Akufo Addo Discontinue The Frank Benneh Trial? Ladies and gentlemen, Frank Benneh was a Geneva based diplomat who was arrested in Switzerland on charges of dealing in narcotic drugs during the rule of the NDC. The NDC, keenly aware of the critical need to set the necessary example that no one was above the law, swiftly brought Frank Benneh back to the country and began his prosecution before a regional tribunal in Accra chaired by Justice Wright Mensah. The prosecution was led by then Deputy Minister of Justice Martin Amidu. Frank Benneh’s lawyer at the time was incidentally a top guru of the NPP, Mr Ray Kakraba-Quarshie. Martin Amidu relentlessly prosecuted the case until the court ruled against Frank Benneh. His defense team however made a case for bail pending appeal and was successful. While the appeal was on, the 2000 elections took place and the NDC left office. Enter Nana Akufo Addo after January 2001 as the incoming Attorney General. What did he do about this grave case? He discontinued the case completely and nothing has been heard about that case since 2001. This was the earliest indication of the weak resolve of the NPP government to continue the fight so successfully waged against narcotics by the NDC. Deconfiscation Of Assets Of Raymond Amankwaah The NDC government was uncompromising on the issue of the confiscation of the properties and assets of convicted drug dealers. The assets of Raymond Amankwaah, a notorious international drug baron, and incidentally a brother in law of Akufo Addo, therefore remained confiscated under the NDC. One of the earliest actions taken by Nana Akufo Addo as Attorney General, was to deconfiscate the assets of this global drug tycoon. This single act on the part of Nana Akufo Addo, in our view, sent out a clear message to drug barons all over the world that the new government of Ghana had no problems at all with drug trafficking. Incidentally, it was on account of the alleged proximity of this same Raymond Amankwaah to the Akufo Addo campaign team during the NPP primaries, that text messages started flying around that Nana Akufo Addo was keeping company with drug dealers. We of this Forum, do not want to focus on whether Raymond Amankwaah was financing Akufo Addo’s campaign or not. Our concern is that the deconfiscation of the assets of this international cocaine dealer by Akufo Addo, then Attorney General, was a most grievous act. The people of Ghana must hold Akufo Addo responsible for opening wide the floodgates of Cocainecracy by this singular act. Raymond Amanwaah, we must remind the nation, was once again busted far away in Brazil a few months after Akufo Addo emerged flagbearer of the NPP. How Akufo Addo Let Go Three NPP Drug Queens Ladies and gentlemen, as if the Raymond Amankwaah debacle was not bad enough, Akufo Addo in the year 2002 lowered the bar further in what has come to be known as the case of the three NPP Dzorwulu drug queens. On February 4, 2002, three NPP Dzorwulu executives were busted with narcotics at the Kotoka International Airport .. They were: Abena Oforiwaa, 65 years, (Chairperson), Comfort Akua Amankwah, Organizer and Ama Nyarkoa, 55 years, Treasurer. The Daily Graphic at the time carried the news with all the above details. Under Akufo Addo as Attorney General, a series of events occurred leading to the disappearance of the three NPP drug queens and their criminal docket. To date, no one in the NPP government including Akufo Addo has bothered to tell the people of Ghana where these women had vanished to and what had happened to their case. This incident under Akufo Addo would be the precursor of the mysterious vanishing of Cocaine in our land under the NPP. How Akufo Addo Pushed For Drug Convicts To Be Brought Back to Ghana Prisons Unknown to all Ghanaians, the three NPP drug queens were not the only NPP leaders who were involved in the drug dealing business. The nation was soon to be hit with the shocking news that NPP MP for Nkoranza, Eric Amoateng was also neck deep involved in the business. The NPP top financier was arrested in the USA for dealing in narcotics worth $6m. There are many who continue to believe that if only Akufo Addo as AG, had not through his actions and inactions opened the drug floodgates, maybe this unparalleled national disgrace would have been pre-empted. Some months after the arrest of Eric Amoateng, controversy was generated in Parliament. A bill seeking to transfer to Ghanaian prisons persons convicted of narcotic trafficking serving sentences in foreign prisons, among others generated a huge storm. Coming not long after the arrest of Eric Amoateng, the bill became unofficially christened the Eric Amoateng Bill. Guess who was the brain behind this “Transfer of Convicted Prisoners Act”? Yours truly, Nana Akufo Addo again- the same man who discontinued the Frank Benneh case, deconsficated the assets of Raymond Amankwaah and woefully failed to prosecute the three NPP drug queens. How safe will Ghana be under Akufo Addo? NPP & Vanishing Of Cocaine Ladies and gentlemen, the mysterious vanishing of the three Dzorwulu NPP drug queens was to set into motion a series of more inexplicable vanishing of huge quantum of cocaine. First came the infamous MV Benjamin cargo of cocaine disappearance. To date there is still no trace of the 77 parcels of cocaine found on board the MV Benjamin even though the international community had dutifully communicated to the Ghanaian authorities the movement and location of the cocaine ship. Yet as soon as the ship approached the coast of Ghana which under the NPP is being now called the “ Cocaine Coast ” all that huge shipment of cocaine vanished. That was not all. Even more mystifying was how a truckload of cocaine, the size of about fifty bags of cement, in a strong room with three locks and a security camera at the Police HQ, vanished without any trace. Maybe one day when the nation gets to know how the three Dzorwulu NPP drug queens vanished into thin air while Akufo Addo was AG, the nation might start to have an inkling as to how the subsequent strange vanishings also occurred. Akufo Addo’s Empty Promise About Setting Up A Drug Czar Of Ministerial Rank Nana Akufo Addo has made several empty promises ranging from delivering 50,000 houses a year to transforming Ghana into a first world country in four years. We have had ample opportunity to tell the country that those promises of Akufo Addo are not worth even the paper they are written on because the track record of his government and his own penchant for deliberately lying to the people on virtually all the critical issues. One of those empty promises is Akufo Addo’s claim that he will tackle the drug menace by appointing what he initially described as a drug Czar who will be elevated to the rank of a member of cabinet. Ladies and gentlemen, talk is cheap indeed! How can Akufo Addo, whose actions and inactions while in office, has opened the floodgates of cocainecracy presume that merely claiming that he would appoint a drug Czar will address the current cocaine crisis? Nana Akufo Addo should first explain to the people of Ghana why he discontinued the Frank Benneh prosecution, deconfiscated the assets of Raymond Amankwah, the notorious international cocaine dealer and failed to prosecute the three NPP drug queens. Before the nation takes his promises about fighting narcotic drug seriously, Akufo after providing satisfactory answers to the above questions should also explain the following: · Why has his NPP government failed to adhere to Chief Justice Georgina Woode’s recommendation that the IGP Patrick Acheampong be removed from office on account of his close friendship and association with known drug barons? · Why has his government instead of removing the IGP from office rather chosen to give him a national award? · Why has his NPP government failed to take a decisive action to clean up the top echelon of the police service who according to the Chief Justice of Ghana, her ladyship Justice Georgina Woode, are not only close associates of known drug barons but are themselves involved? Prof Mills The Real Deal Prof Mills’ promise is golden and anchored on a solid track record of credibility and integrity. Ghana has good reason to believe him when he says that under him Ghana will not be allowed to be turned into a subsidiary of drug cartels as had happened over the last eight years. He has also pledged to faithfully and diligently discharge all obligations relating to the seizure and forfeiture of assets of convicted drug traffickers, unlike what Akufo Addo has done in the case of Raymond Amankwah. Above all, he will send a clear signal to all drug dealers and traffickers that his government will be in no hurry to transfer to Ghana prisons persons convicted of narcotic trafficking serving sentences in Thailand and other parts of the world.

The difference Prof brings to the table is not the Akufo Addo’s empty enunciation of drug policy, but the moral attribute and the track record of his government under whose reign, ship load of cocaine was not vanishing, truckload of cocaine was not disappearing in police strong room, party executives were not being arrested with narcotics, MPs were not being jailed abroad for dealing in drugs and NDC was not pushing for the deconfiscation the assets of drug dealers. Ladies and Gentlemen, Ghana cannot be safe under Akufo Addo. His track record shows that cocaine and crime would thrive if Ghana makes the mistake of voting for him. Thank you once more ladies and gentlemen for honouring our invitation.

nartey