Home - 'I tagged Kufuor as 'cocaine coast' president, now I'm ashamed – Koku Anyidoho

Former Director of Communications at the Office of the late President John Evans Atta Mills, Samuel Koku Anyidoho, has expressed disappointment over the recent cocaine seizure linked to a consignment originating from Ghana.

He recalled how he and the NDC previously used similar drug-related incidents to attack the administration of former President John Agyekum Kufuor.

According to Koku Anyidoho, between 2006 and 2008, when he served as Director of Communications for then-candidate John Evans Atta Mills’ campaign team, he played a leading role in the NDC’s communication strategy surrounding the MV Benjamin cocaine scandal and the ‘Limping Man’ incident.

He said the NDC at the time mounted pressure on President Kufuor and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), with the party’s communication strategy including branding the NPP administration as having turned Ghana into a “cocaine coast”.

Koku Anyidoho said the strategy proved effective and contributed to making the then Kufuor administration unpopular, but he now finds it painful to see a similar cocaine-related incident occurring under an NDC government.

“To be frank, between 2006 and 2008, when I was the Director of Communications for Candidate Atta Mills’ campaign team, President Kufuor was in office. During that period, there was the MV Benjamin cocaine scandal and the ‘Limping Man’ incident. I was at the forefront of those issues, and we did not take it easy on President Kufuor.

“As part of our political communication strategy, I was the one who came up with the idea that we should tag President Kufuor as having turned Ghana into a cocaine coast and it worked,” he said.

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Reflecting on the current situation, Koku Anyidoho said he is particularly concerned because the NDC, which previously criticised the NPP over drug-related scandals, is now in government at a time when major cocaine shipments are traced to Ghana.

He said the development is painful for him because of the party’s previous stance on the issue and the political message it used against the NPP.

“And so this current cocaine thing, it hurts me on that side of the political divide that the party that fought cocaine sometime ago and now under our dispensation, this kind of thing is happening,” he stated.

Koku Anyidoho also questioned whether the individuals arrested or identified in connection with the shipment represent the full extent of the network involved, arguing that moving such a large quantity of cocaine through a container would require the involvement of several people at different stages.

He said authorities must look beyond those who may have been directly apprehended and investigate the wider network responsible for facilitating the shipment.

“Smuggling drugs is not easy. To smuggle almost four tonnes, put it in a container and have it leave the country means there must be a chain involved. It cannot be the work of one person; there is a chain,” he stated.

Background

Koku Anyidoho’s comments follow the seizure of a large consignment of cocaine by French authorities at the Port of Dunkirk on September 7, 2026.

French Customs intercepted a container carrying plastic waste that originated from Ghana and was bound for Antwerp, Belgium. Authorities discovered 167 bales of cocaine weighing approximately 3.9 metric tonnes, with an estimated street value of €225 million, equivalent to about US$261 million.

French authorities said the shipment was uncovered after judicial police had already been targeting the network behind the consignment. France’s National Jurisdiction against Organised Crime has since opened an investigation into suspected organised importation of narcotics and criminal association.

The seizure has also been linked by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and Belgian newspaper HLN to fugitive Dutch national Jos Leijdekkers, popularly known as “Bolle Jos”.

Leijdekkers, 33, is wanted by European authorities and was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison in the Netherlands for trafficking nearly seven tonnes of cocaine. Dutch authorities believe he is hiding in Sierra Leone.

The latest seizure has generated political debate in Ghana, with questions being raised about how such a large quantity of cocaine could have been loaded into a container originating from Ghana and subsequently transported through international ports.

@tina_news_gh LIVE NOW | Samuel Koku Anyidoho, reacts to the alleged cocaine saga, sharing his perspective on the ongoing controversy and the issues surrounding the case. ♬ original sound - Tina News Gh

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