Where is the cocaine? -CJA

PUBLIC FORUM DUBBED “AFTER GEORGINA WOOD COMMITTEE REPORT – WHERE IS THE COCAINE” SPONSERED BY CJA AT TEACHERS HALL, ACCRA, ON WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 18, 2006.

Introduction:

God bless our homeland Ghana and make our Nation great and strong. Bold to defend forever the cost of freedom and of right……………………………………………….

Madam Chairperson, Speakers, Media present, Friends and probably Enemies, Ladies and Gentlemen. Inspired by the words of our National Anthem, I have accepted the challenge as part of the broad principles of the core mandate of the CJA- that of holding government accountable to the people. Comrade Chair, The sovereignty of Ghana is under threat. Our country and its democracy is facing eminent auction, our youth are increasingly getting socked in the miasma of licentious sex and unprecedented armed robbery, our society is ghastly becoming a health hazard, Our national resources are greatly expended on avoidable health / mentally related issues. And above all, our fledging and nascent democracy is being auctioned to the highest bidder. These cankerous attributes are as a result of lack of commitment to tackle the invidious threat of narcotics and substance abuse in our country.

Comrades, long before the Georgina Wood Committee was established, our beloved Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana was tagged as a transit rout for narcotics. This inimical international image did not attract the sharp sword of a government committed to the sacrosanct war of upholding, defending and protecting the good name of Ghana. Despite this negative name, a NPP-Member of Parliament “Honourable” Eric Amoateng was arrested, detained and is facing trial in the U.S, after the authorities suspected him of dealing in narcotics. Several attempts to get Mr. President and the NPP to allow for by-elections so that Nkoranza North can have a deserving MP have not attracted the “sympathy” of the NPP. Clearly government had an opportunity to register its dejection of the crime of the alleged drug deals of Amoateng to serve as a litmus test of its rejection of the bad image that has characterized Ghana. This did not happen.

Wood Committee

On 4th July, the Georgina wood Committee was established to ascertain the where about of the 77 parcels of missing cocaine. Like any shrewd Ghanaian, the CJA from the outset knew the committee could not succeed and vigourously voiced out the inappropriateness of the committee. We called on government in the true spirit of nationalism to establish a commission with powers and immunities as per the construct of article 278 of our national constitution. We warned that committee as constituted would fail to discharge its duties pertinaciously. We also cautioned that the committee was likely to succeed only as a spend drift, i.e. allocating scarce resources to committee members whereas it was predictable that government was using the committee as a stopgap for public demands for a real image cleansing.

As predicted, the committee concluded its work and report submitted to government. Government has issued a white paper that clearly coincides with the CJA’s long held belief that our government is not serious about the crime of narcotics and its affiliates. After spending several millions of Cedis on a flippant committee of enquiry, we are where we were before the committee was established – a country deeply submerged in crisis, a country genuinely looking for someone to redeem its sagged image, a country traumatized by the effects of substance abuse, a country whose international image has taken a calamitous dive and a country where people feel ashamed to be identified.

The inability of the committee and government to provide relevant answers to the mirage/myriad of questions has occasioned a very nasty ethnic spilt in our country. For me this is just a tip of the eyes berg of the problems that we can face with the reluctance of government to meet the expectation of Ghanaians. The fact that the Wood Committee failed to follow authentic leads to establish the true identities of the dealers and their accomplices, left many questions unanswered. As part of people whose names were cited, the Georgina Wood Committee work did not invite Asantehene even though his name was cited the most among those who appeared before the committee.

Why did the GWC not invite the Asantehene? Why did the committee report not allude to the fact that inspite of his name being cited it had contrary opinion?

These questions have been asked and will continue to be asked until the cocaine is found. Asking these questions has provoked the Asantehene leading to his lambasting of Journalist, Politicians and Social Commentators. He chastises his sub chiefs for not defending him. He christened it as “an Anti-Asanteman campaign that must be resisted” By who? He said he would not hesitate to ask his people not to vote for politicians who asked questions thus evoking partisanship into the noble institution of chieftaincy. (See Ghanaian Times and Daily Graphic of 27 Sep. 2006). By this decree, Asantehene gave a blank cheque to his people to launch personal and psychological assault of vitriolic levels on people. Threatening the lives of nice, pure and true Ghanaians. At the end suggesting the Asante Chiefdom is more supreme than Ghana. We all revere our traditions and our chiefs but anytime our traditional leaders brought the institution to public ridicule, it is the individuals that suffer and not the institution. But the reverse is true of our Asanti brethren. As has become the norm, the recent spate of threats on the lives of people is yet to attract the attention of the IGP, the CID, and Minister for National Security, what a country is this: is it because it involves the ‘Asante-Nyame’ or ‘Manhyia Nyame’?

But I am not surprise. I am not surprised because once again, we are witnessing a new level of political bigotry. Where, if you profess loyalty to the NPP, you can steal, you can commit crime and you can even kill but nothing will happen to you. It is in this light that Lord Commey, the NPP National Organiser could have stated that he keeps armed and loyal group “Action Troopers” who he used in 2000 and 2004 to hijack ballot boxes for the NPP and the security agencies will find nothing wrong with it. Haruna Esseku, Former NPP, National Chairman would load about 10 billion cedis into car boots from the castle and no interrogation of him is done. However, when Dr. Edward Mahama talks about guns and other armory were being fired at a by-election, Mr. Dan Lartey calls for early elections because President Kufour has failed the nation and Kwame Kusi says the President travels too much, these personalities were summoned by the BNI and either interrogated or apprehended and detained. This obviously is a theatrical display of justice under a government that claims the credentials of rule of law.

But we have known the competence of our security agencies in unraveling more complex assignments.

The Police were able to unravel the disappearance of Jerry Owusu aka Ninja (Marshall Art’s instructor) who was murdered, buried and a concrete foundation laid on the grave. When someone was killed and a river block the person buried under and the river opened the police were able to discover it. So how come that after the NACOB, Ghana Navy, Air force, Ghana police where informed of MV Benjamin and its contents some 40 nautical miles away, they failed to apprehend the ship and its content? Have our police become corrupted in our Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana? Clearly the establishment of the GWC by government has been at best comical. What a chameleonic government.

The President HE JAK had even stated that some intelligence available to him shows that people travel to South Africa and Venezuela dealing in narcotic on the pretext of foreign travels. He asked Ghanaians to seize fire because as he put it “we now know where those behind the cocaine in Ghana were”. To me, the President intentionally allowed a fictitious and bogus Committee to Work. No wonder the outcome of the bogus GWC has been bogus. It is sad that when the number one Chief Executive gets to know where narcotics are and who deals in them, he still allows the perpetrators to walk free. It is sad that the President after making comments that could undermine the bilateral trust of South Africa, Venezuela and Ghana, he failed to report the details of the information available to him so that appropriate security actions could be taken? Mr. President where is the Cocaine?

Comrade Chair, ladies and Gentlemen, God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong so that we are fortified to survive this chameleonic government.

Good evening