Sammi Awuku demand answers on waived $1million MV Sankofa penalty

The Member of Parliament for Akuapem North, Hon. Sammi Awuku, has called on the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) to disclose the legal basis on which it waived a US$1 million penalty imposed on the vessel MV Sankofa, describing the Authority’s explanation so far as inadequate.

In a statement published on his official Facebook page, the MP said the Ghana Navy intercepted MV Sankofa off Axim on 22 July 2025 with its Automatic Identification System switched off. A GMA inspection report dated 27 July 2025 subsequently recorded what he described as serious deficiencies aboard the vessel.

According to the statement, fourteen statutory certificates were missing. The vessel carried no oil record book, no garbage record book and no sewage holding tank. São Tomé and Príncipe, the flag state the vessel purported to sail under, denied ever having registered it. The Authority concluded that the vessel was not seaworthy.

GMA initially imposed the statutory penalty of US$1 million in its cedi equivalent, the MP said, but later waived it on the basis that a subsequent inspection found no evidence the vessel had been trading in Ghana.

Hon. Awuku said that reasoning does not settle the question. “Whether the vessel was trading is not the only relevant question,” he wrote, arguing that the records should show the legal basis on which MV Sankofa entered Tema Fishing Harbour, moved to Tema Anchorage, operated within Ghanaian waters and was eventually permitted to leave.

He also rejected any reliance on the doctrine of innocent passage as a catch-all justification. Under international maritime law, he noted, passage must be continuous and expeditious, with stopping or anchoring permitted only in limited circumstances. If the vessel was in Ghanaian waters under some other clearance or authorisation, he said, GMA must identify it.

The MP put three questions to the Authority: the precise legal basis, opinion or decision that authorised the waiver; the explanation for a US$60,000 discrepancy in pollution-related penalties between the inspection report and a GMA response under the Right to Information Act; and the identity of the officer who authorised the vessel’s departure from Ghana on 14 November 2025.

MV Sankofa was later detained in Senegal in connection with a drug investigation and was reportedly flying the Ghanaian flag at the time, according to the statement.

“Transparency is the minimum,” Hon. Awuku wrote. “Accountability must follow.”