CJA calls for Inquiry into cocaine-related cases

Accra, Oct. 4, GNA - The Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a political pressure group, on Wednesday demanded the institution of a Commission of Inquiry to properly examine the narcotics threat facing the country.

The CJA said the Justice Georgina Wood Committee, which investigated recent cocaine-related cases lacked enough powers to carry out its functions effectively.

"We demand a presidential commitment to take on the narcotics menace head-on, regardless of who might be behind it," Spokesman for CJA, Dr David Pessey, told a press conference in Accra. The CJA claimed the Government had not done enough to the cocaine threat stating that Government's response had been entirely inadequate and non-substantive.

The pressure group said the Committee had been the centrepiece of Government's response to the narcotics crisis and the Executive presented the Committee to the public as evidence of its resolve to deal firmly with the narcotics threat.

"In truth, however, Government ensured that the Committee could do no such thing. It refused to give the Committee the terms of reference, status, powers and immunities required. For this reason, the Report of the Wood Committee could not constitute a major step forward in our search for the truth," the CJA said.

The CJA questioned why the Chief Justice would allow a Supreme Court Judge to operate in an environment where she exercised less power than a Circuit Court Judge

It said the inclusion of a Member of Parliament and the President of the Ghana Journalists Association on the Committee was potentially damaging to Parliament and could potentially compromise the independent watchdog role of the media, respectively.

The CJA said the Interior Minister, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah offered the public very few details about how Government intended to go about implementing the recommendations of the Committee, despite the Government saying that it had adopted all the bland recommendations and already initiated action on most of them.

Mr Kwesi Pratt Junior, a leading Member of the CJA, announced that the CJA would initiate countrywide discussions on the threat of the cocaine menace.