Former Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul has called for the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority’s (GPHA) Chief Executive Officer, Brigadier-General Paul Seidu Tanye-Kulono, to step aside while investigations continue into the latest drug trafficking case at the country’s ports.
His comments come after President John Dramani Mahama convened a high-level meeting over a cocaine seizure linked to a container that left Ghana and was intercepted in France.
During the meeting, the president was informed that 10 people, including four Customs officers from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), are already in custody as investigations continue.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Thursday, September 16, Dominic Nitiwul welcomed the President’s decision to convene the meeting and the arrests that followed, but said the probe must go beyond those directly tied to the container.
“We are not satisfied enough. We think that every person in the chain of events handling that container must be picked up.
“Every head that was to supervise the work of all these people must make sure that they step aside for investigation. Because you cannot allow people who were there, heads, to be there whilst we are investigating. It will compromise the investigation,” he said.
He argued the scope should widen beyond this single seizure to cover other major cocaine busts recorded over the past year, given the significant cumulative value involved.
“I also want that the investigation should not just be limited to just this container that was obviously seized or detected in France and then the cocaine seized. But then all others, especially the big ones that have happened over the last one year, I think that they should expand it.”
Nitiwul also pressed government to update Ghanaians on the outcomes of earlier cocaine trafficking investigations and prosecutions.
“If you don’t do that, people will assume that nothing is being done,” he said.
He additionally called for a broader, cross-sector committee to investigate Ghana’s drug trafficking problem and recommend measures to prevent future incidents, saying transparency and further action would be needed to restore public confidence in the fight against illicit drugs.
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