CENAB UK Rubbishes NDC Press Conference and Dares Government to Set an Inquiry to Nayelegate

CENAB-UK believes that the recent press conference organised by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the Nayele Ametefe's cocaine case was nothing more than a party running from the ghosts of its evil deeds.

CENAB UK, an advocacy group supporting the ticket of Nana Addo and Dr Bawumia to lead Ghana, is sickened by the wanton display of arrogance and ignorance by the NDC general secretary who anchored their press conference and the elementary nature of the desperate arguments he used to distance his party from the scandal and seeking with impunity to implicate the NPP.

CENAB UK feels incensed by the clear attempt of the NDC to weave a jigsaw of lies and propaganda which clearly does not in any way fit into the whole puzzle of the Nayelegate. The fact that NDC in their dream minds dared to implicate the flagbearer of the NPP and his running mate in connection with this scandal is an affront to our Ghanaian decorum, moral ethos and an abuse of freedom of speech.

The facts of the case are so clear that it will only take the dazed minds of NDC logic to deny it and try to pull wool over our eyes. First of all the Nayelegate would not have been possible if the NDC government operatives had not facilitated her use of the VVIP lounge at the Kotoka International Airport. According to the records gathered by the Crown Prosecution Service in UK, the last two phone calls made on the confiscated phone of Nayele were to one Dr Stephen Opuni, who we know as the former Director of the Food and Drugs Board, one before embarkation at Kotoka and the other after disembarkation at Heathrow. The calls to this top NDC government official were not coincidental. He did not only provide her the access to the purest of cocaine from the laboratories of the Food and Drugs Agency (NACOB) but also facilitated her access to through the VVIP.

The President of Ghana, John Mahama has also by his action of dissolving the Food and Drugs Board confirmed the complicity of the board in this drug trafficking. The lies by NACOB about collaboration with their UK counterparts and which was exposed by the British High Commission was also another attestation of the cover-up by the government.

Nana Akufo-Addo, the NPP flagbearer and his running mate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia are not allowed access to the VVIP when they are travelling into and out of Ghana. It is therefore highly incredulous for the NDC to associate them to the facilitation of Nayele's use of such a facility.

At the Isleworth Crown Court in UK, it became clear in evidence led in the court by Nayele's lawyer that she was aided by people in high echelon of authority in Ghana. Nayele also briefed her lawyer that she accompanies government entourage on tours and travels everywhere on first class which makes us believe that indeed she holds a diplomatic passport. Dubbed the Cleopatra of Cocaine in West Africa, we know that Miss Nayele Ametefe has accompanied the President of Ghana John Mahama to a grand opening of a multi-million dollar stadium at Akwa-ibom state in Nigeria last year. She has also flown on a number of occasions on the private jet of the presidents' brother Ibrahim Mahama. It was this assurance of trust by government officials that emboldened Nayele to travel to UK with such a huge amount of cocaine.

It is also a clear fact that the government of the NDC weighed in very quickly to defend her when the news first broke. It is no longer in doubt that the officials of the Ghana High Commission were on hand to meet her at the airport on the 10th of November when she was arrested. The Ghana High Commission have admitted they were at the airport but to meet an army official. Our investigation has shown that such official never arrived so we know they lied and the only plausible explanation is that they were there to offer Nayele a diplomatic passage. Hon Hannah Tetteh, the Foreign Minister very openly on Radio Gold admitted the visit of the Ghana High Commission and her defence of Nayele that she carried the drugs to UK on a blind assurance that it was gold. This contradicts Nayele's own admission that she was aware she was carrying cocaine and that she has been in the business for a long time. In which part of the Hannah Tetteh false account including the visit of the Ghana High Commission to the remand prison of Nayele, did the NPP or its leaders ever crop up?

It is indeed laughable, if not ridiculous that Asiedu Nketiah will seek to link the NPP UK fundraising event to the Nayelegate. The NPP event was planned as far back as August 2014 and the invitation made to Dr Bawumia at that time. The event was billed to be held on Friday 14th November 2014 with tickets sold far in advance. Dr Bawumia's arrival in UK was therefore not in any way linked to this unconnected scandal. Nana Akufo-Addo's arrival in UK a month later was widely publicised in Ghana ahead of his travel and the purpose of visiting his daughter who had just given birth to his grandchild was very well known to every well-meaning Ghanaian except Asiedu Nketiah and his NDC cohort.

In view of this convoluted and perverse press conference by the NDC, CENAB UK is daring the John Mahama's government to institute a commission of enquiry into the whole Nayelegate. In April 2006 when the menace of cocaine threatened our democracy and unity as a nation, the then government of NPP took the bull by the horn and set up the Georgina Wood Committee. This committee was able to investigate the saga of the missing 77 parcels of cocaine from MV Benjamin and was able to bring a number of culprits to trial, thus bringing a closure to the matter. We have arrived at a similar situation which borders on national security where some government officials presumably have aided a single lady to smuggle 12.5kilograms of pure cocaine with a street value of £1.4million into UK, thus bringing the whole of the nation and its government into disrepute. It is therefore imperative that the government brings a closure to the matter by setting up a committee similar to the 2006 Georgina Wood Committee to investigate the Nayelegate.

CENAB UK calling on Mr Asiedu Nketiah and his NDC to join us in this call for this inquiry and stop this infantile blame game which they are involved in. After all it is incontrovertible from the number of spin off trials from the Nayelegate that what we know of it so far is just a tip of the iceberg and CENAB UK Advocacy Group will continue its investigations to gather more information to support any future inquiry.

Source: CENAB UK Advocacy Group.
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