Statement: NPP urges NDC to stop 'drug politics'

It has come to the notice of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) the desperate spin and propaganda being put on the recent wikileaks cables by NDC commentators and newspapers, who, ordinarily one would have expected them to soberly reflect on the President's leaked admission to the American Ambassador that "he knows elements" in his barely one-year Government in 2009 "are already compromised..."

In the Monday December 20, 2010 edition of the Enquirer newspaper the headline read ‘Coke Barons Bankrolled NPP’ – US Ambassador’s Shocking Revelation. Nowhere in those leaked documents was any evidence given to support any allegation that drug barons sponsored the NPP or any political party for that matter. Similar useless stories have been published by other NDC papers.

But, the fact that a senior political aide to Prof Mills in the past admitted to working for a Venezuelan drug baron, whom he thought was a genuine and legitimate foreign investor in our country, should tell us all the weight of the challenges we face as a nation in our efforts to combat this dangerous trade. It therefore calls for a strategic non-partisan approach.

As the NDC-appointed head of the Narcotics Control Board (NARCOB) says in one of the cables of last year, "the Mills administration has so far failed to provide adequate resources to NACOB.

He underlined that the force is understaffed, underfunded, and under resourced." Should we not be challenging the NDC to back their campaign promise by showing political will with action?

Should we say that the fact that President Mills, per a leaked cable, demanded for his aides and other elements of his Government to be searched privately to avoid "surprises" means that he is not committed to fighting against drug trafficking but in protecting his government from a drug scandal?

Should we take the reinstatement of the interdicted former Deputy Executive Director of NARCOB, Ben Ndego, as a sign that the Mills-Mahama administration has no political appetite to fight against the illicit drug trade? We do not believe this is the right way forward.

We wish to advise the Enquirer and other NDC papers to, at least, try to put the nation first and stop their misleading and calculated attempt to throw dust into the eyes of the public on the drug menace. It would not solve the problem.

As our Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo insists, the drug problem is not an NPP or NDC problem, it is a national problem, a multi-billion dollar global problem which our geographical location, economic situation and institutional weaknesses have made Ghana an attractive prey to the drug barons. Let us be responsible and fight it with action, not propaganda.

The person who is specifically named by the leaked cables as accusing the NPP of being funded by drug money is a member of the NDC and the leaked report took particular exception to the "disparaging remarks" he made about the NPP.

The Thursday, October 8, 2009 cable reads, in part: the new Executive Secretary of NARCOB, Yaw Akrasi "Sarpong stated that 'I am a political man', outlining his time as former President Jerry Rawlings' youngest cabinet minister in the mid 1980s... He claimed to track all drug dealers regardless of their political affiliation yet simultaneously made disparaging categorical remarks about drug connections in the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, now the opposition party (and the influence on politics of money derived from drug trafficking)."

We also take serious exception to the introduction of the notorious drug convict, Mr. Raymond Amankwah in the Enquirer story.

In setting the records straight, Mr. Amankwah is a step brother to the wife of Mr. Edward Akufo-Addo, brother of Nana Akufo-Addo. He has never been a member of the NPP nor a contributor to the party. Indeed, according to evidence of his arrest in the United Kindgom in the mid-1990s, Amankwah's drug business was at its height in the 1980s and 1990s when the (P) NDC were in office, even before Edward Akufo-Addo met his future wife.

Mr. Amankwah, according to reports, was arrested in Brazil a few years ago (shortly after serving a long jail term in the UK) as part of a drug trafficking ring around the world and has been dealt with by the international security agencies. Here in Ghana, records from the Attorney General's Department indicate that, in 1996 or thereabout, acting on a request from the UK authorities, an ice cream factory in Ghana was confiscated on the suspicion that it belonged to the drug convict.

This was disputed by directors of the company (none of whom is known to belong to the NPP) who challenged the confiscation order in court. Court submissions from both parties had been made before 2001, when the NPP came into office, but judgement for the plaintiffs were given in 2001.

Thus, like the Kwabena Amaning (Tagor) and Issah Abbas case, which had them convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction, under one political administration, only for them to win on appeal, under another political regime, we should, as a nation resist the temptation of making unhealthy political capital out of such judicial decisions.

In the confiscation case, Nana Addo, as Attorney-General, filed an appeal against the deconfiscation ruling and the case was pending before he was moved from that office to become a Foreign Minister. Similarly, Betty Mould, but in her case, publicly announced that she was going to appeal against the quashed convictions of Tagor and Abbas. Little has been heard of the intended appeal since.

In 2008 and since, the NDC made it the pillar of their campaign to falsely brand our party and flagbearer as involved in cocaine; whilst the NPP was outlining its comprehensive programme to beef-up the war on drugs.

It is instructive to note that upon all the intelligence that the US embassy appeared to have, nowhere in the leaked reports was President Kufuor or our presidential candidate mentioned. Indeed, the report says the Americans had come across no evidence of the involvement of leading NPP politicians in the illicit trade.

The leaked cables go on to acknowledge that both presidential candidates of NPP and NDC made commitments to intensify the fight against drug trafficking. The NDC has been given the chance to back that commitment with action.

It can also not be that Mr. Eric Amoateng a Member of Parliament (MP) who was arrested in the United States of America (USA) was the reason why the Narcotics Control Board (NARCOB) officials were changed in 2006.

The shake up at NARCOB then was a step taken to refocus the activities of the agency in curbing the drug menace that included international collaborations such as Operation Westbridge.

The Attorney General's Department in the last administration did a lot such as the arrest, prosecution and conviction of several including eight people in the MV Benjamin case, the purging of the Police Service (of over 80 officers); the transparent sittings of the Georgina Wood Committee (which was set up by Albert Kan-Dapaah) and its report; the passing of the Anti-Money Laundering Act; the law to deny drug offenders bail; the decision to burn seized drugs, leaving just a sample as exhibit; and international cooperation efforts, including Operation Westbridge and others. Newspaper headlines in those eight years bear witness are to how the drug menace was fought here in Ghana.

It is also worthy of note that a criminal is not guilty until proven and convicted, as such the Accountant General's Department and the Parliamentary Service paid Mr. Amoateng until after his conviction which is normal in the public service and therefore the NPP cannot be faulted in that regard.

What we have done is to enhance our internal screening process with the view to checking any future possibilities of a drug smuggler contesting on our party's ticket. We believe the fight against drugs requires constant vigilance and enhancement of detection and prevention systems.

In a related development, the Deputy Minister of Information is reported to have said that 375 Diplomatic Passports had been withdrawn since the inception of the Mills administration. We humbly demand that the list be made public to alley all doubts that have been put in the public sphere regarding the integrity of former government officials, the clergy, businessmen and others of high standing people in our society.

What we do know is that ordinarily a change of government calls for a large withdrawal of diplomatic passports from former Ministers of State, MPs, Ambassadors and other political appointees who were entitled to that privilege.

Lets put Ghana first and not feast on a menace that can consume our children's future.