Is Kennedy Agyapong Calling Ibrahim Mahama A Drug-Trafficker?

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

Nov. 26, 2014

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

I like his spirited attempt to defending President John Dramani Mahama against any linkage to the Ghanaian-Austrian woman arrested at London's Heathrow Airport for possessing 12.5kgs of commercial-grade cocaine on Nov. 10, 2014, but Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyepong leaves several questions unanswered (See "Cocaine Lady Used VVIP Because of Ibrahim Mahama - Ken Agyapong" Peacefmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 11/26/14).

He leaves several questions unanswered because Mr. Agyapong also attempts, rather scandalously, to exculpate politicians who may either be directly sponsoring or facilitating the criminal and antisocial activities of notorious drug-traffickers. On the latter score, this is what the Assin-Central New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament has to say: "All these girls are not NDC girls; they are not NPP. They've made themselves thick cocaine girls. They're using us to make money."

In other words, what the proprietor of Oman-Fm Radio, and other known lucrative ventures, clearly appears to be saying is that politicians belonging to both major parliamentary aisles may be actively facilitating the criminal activities of drug couriers like Ms. Nayele Ametefe, whom Mr. Agyapong claims to be the romantic squeeze or love interest of President Mahama's younger half-brother, Ibrahim.

What makes Mr. Agyapong's revelation very troubling is the fact that the firebrand New Patriotic Party (NPP) patron waxes blase about the fact that some Ghanaian politicians would allow themselves and their offices and/or remarkable social influences to be so readily and cheaply used by these female drug-traffickers. Well, if, indeed, what Mr. Agyapong is alleging about the activities of some of his colleagues in the august House has validity, then it stands to reason for Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho to set up an investigative committee or panel to inquire into the activities of these parliamentarians. Preferably, an independent panel composed of legal and national security experts not publicly known to be affiliated with either of the two major political parties would be perfectly in order.

He is not categorically saying it, but it is almost safe to infer from his remarks that Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong may not be totally out of the loop, when it comes to the patronage and/or sponsorship of notorious mega drug-traffickers like Ms. Ametefe. About the only instructive revelation from Mr. Agyapong, vis-a-vis the criminal profile of Ms. Ametefe (aka Ruby Adu-Gyamfi), regards the fact of the busted cocaine courier's having served a 3-year prison sentence in the Netherlands.

Regarding the question of whether in opting to become romantically linked with Ms. Ametefe, Mr. Ibrahim Mahama has brought the image and reputation of President Mahama into abject disrepute, the verdict or moral judgment does not belong to the Assin-Central legislator. After all, just when was Mr. Agyapong appointed to the cabinet portfolio of President Mahama's Image-Protection Czar? At least not since the last time that I checked the same.

This kind of unsolicited "go-ferism" is what Americans call "Buttinsky." In other words, officiously sticking his nose into the private and familial affairs of the Mahama Brothers is highly unlikely to earn the Oman-Fm Radio proprietor any brownie points or favors. To be certain, it actually portrays Mr. Agyapong as a political operative with a blotchy personality profile. For starters, the mere biological fact of him being the sibling of President Mahama does not give Mr. Ibrahim Mahama the right to routinely using the VVIP-Lounge at the Kotoka International Airport on his travels abroad, much less presume to cavalierly, and routinely, conduct criminal love interests like Ms. Ametefe through the same.

Needless to say, it is the bounden obligation of President Mahama to ensure that his relatives, friends and associates do not take undue advantage of his political power and influence. What is significant to observe here, if it has credence or validity, is for the presidency to launch an immediate investigation into whether, indeed, Mr. Ibrahim Mahama has any intimate relationship or close association with Ms. Ametefe that may likely have caused the former to directly or obliquely compromise our national security and the country's image and reputation abroad.

Mr. Agyapong has also alleged that Dr. Stephen Opuni, the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD (the erstwhile Cocoa-Marketing Board) is known to be a close associate of Ms. Ametefe's. Maybe national security agents could look into the possibility of and any conduct of legal impropriety that might have occurred between Ms. Ametefe and Dr. Opuni, provided that the Assin-Central MP is willing and able to provide any incriminating evidence for this express purpose.

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