KIA VIP Lounge 'worse than a market place' - Ex-NACOB chair

The outgoing chairman of the board of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) has described the VIP Lounge of Ghana’s only international airport as “worse than a market place.”

Naval Captain (rtd) Baffour Assasie-Gyimah said the scene at the VIP and Diplomatic sections of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) is unbefitting of an international airport compared to other parts of the world.

“If you were to look at the VIP Lounge, the Diplomatic Lounge that we do not control, I was there sometime back and I thought it was worse than a market place,” the chairman of the dissolved NACOB board told Accra-based TV3 Wednesday evening.

“Everybody in Ghana was passing through there. Everybody in Ghana is an important person.”

Naval Captain (rtd) Assasie-Gyimah’s 17-member board was dissolved last Saturday following a cocaine bust at the Heathrow Airport on November 10 involving a Ghanaian lady Nayele Ametefeh also known as Ruby Appiah who was traveling on an Austrian passport.

NACOB after media reports on the arrest said in a statement that it collaborated with its UK partners to nab the lady who is appearing in court on Thursday. But the UK High Commission in Accra and the government of Ghana debunked NACOB’s statement leading to the dissolution of the board.

Naval Captain (rtd) Assasie-Gyimah, who described their folding up as disheartening, said “people exploited the loopholes in the system,” and that the security personnel at the VVIP Lounge should have been held culpable too.

The Bureau of National Investigations has since arrested 12 people in connection with the cocaine haul in Ghana.