Christian Council demands action against financiers behind drug trafficking

The Christian Council of Ghana has called for comprehensive financial investigations into suspected narcotics trafficking networks, urging state institutions to trace the financiers and beneficiaries behind major drug shipments.

The Council said the fight against narcotics trafficking should go beyond the arrest and prosecution of couriers to include efforts to identify and dismantle the financial networks sustaining the illicit trade.

It also called on the Presidency, Parliament, the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) and the judiciary to use their legal powers to track, freeze and confiscate proceeds linked to narcotics-related crimes.

“State institutions must prove to the citizenry that no individual, regardless of political or economic stature, is beyond the reach of the law,” Rev. Enoch Nii Narh Thompson, Chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana, said.

He made the call on Thursday, September 24, when the Council received a delegation from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Policy Committee on Defence, Intelligence & Security and the Committee on Religious Affairs.

The delegation had approached the Council for a non-partisan moral, pastoral and spiritual intervention over concerns about the increasing incidence of narcotics trafficking and related crimes in Ghana.

Rev. Thompson said the Council had taken note of recent high-profile interceptions, including the reported seizure of 3.3 tonnes of cocaine at Pedu Junction in Cape Coast, an interception on the Takoradi-Cape Coast highway and 866 parcels concealed in gari sacks at Tema Harbour.

He said the developments poses serious concerns for national security, young people, families and the moral wellbeing of the country.

The Council also questioned whether law enforcement efforts are sufficiently targeting the financiers, organisers and principal beneficiaries of the narcotics trade rather than focusing primarily on individuals at the bottom of the chain.

“A selective justice system that penalises the desperate courier while shielding the wealthy financier is an abomination before God and a betrayal of the rule of law,” Rev. Thompson said.

The Council said its position is grounded in both its Christian mandate and Ghana's constitutional and legal framework, citing Article 41 of the 1992 Constitution and laws including the Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019), the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044) and the Whistleblower Act, 2006 (Act 720).

It stressed, however, that its intervention should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any political party or an attack on any administration.