NPP’s removal of NACOC from routine checks made Ghana’s borders porous – Dr. Sammy Ayeh

Government Communications Team member Dr Sammy Ayeh has blamed the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration’s 2018 port inspection reforms for contributing to vulnerabilities in Ghana’s fight against drug trafficking.

According to him, the decision to exclude the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) from routine physical inspections at the ports made it easier for drug traffickers to exploit Ghana’s borders.

He was speaking on Accra-based Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on Thursday, October 1, in response to the NPP’s criticism of the government over recent drug seizures in Ghana and abroad involving shipments linked to the country.

“They[NPP] can't win the cocaine debate. At the very least, this is the government that has demonstrated that he has no room for cocaine issues in this country. We are the ones who have reinstated the Narcotics Control Commission onto the board of institutions that do routine inspections at the ports,” Dr Ayeh said.

He questioned the rationale behind the 2018 decision and argued that NACOC officers have specialised training to identify drug trafficking methods that officers from other agencies may not necessarily detect during routine inspections.

“What was the reason why they took that decision? Up to now, the NPP has not been able to tell us the reason why they took that decision. So, from 2018, incrementally, you will see that the quantities of drug busts were increasing from that time because people began to realise that Ghana’s ports are porous,” he said.

The comments come amid renewed scrutiny of Ghana’s cargo inspection and narcotics enforcement systems following the seizure by French customs of nearly 3.9 tonnes of suspected cocaine from a container shipped from Ghana to the port of Dunkirk in September.

The shipment, concealed among recycled plastic, was estimated to have a street value of about €225 million, while NACOC subsequently arrested three suspects in Ghana over their alleged links to the trafficking network.

In 2018, then Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia announced that the number of agencies conducting joint physical inspections at Ghana’s ports would be reduced from 16 to three; the Ghana Standards Authority, Food and Drugs Authority and Customs. NACOC and National Security were to participate based on intelligence.

Former Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul has since clarified that NACOC was not removed from Ghana’s ports altogether but was excluded from routine joint physical inspections as part of reforms intended to reduce delays and bureaucracy.