Former National Democratic Congress (NDC) Deputy General Secretary Koku Anyidoho has called for a comprehensive investigation into the latest cocaine trafficking controversy, saying the scale of the shipment suggests the involvement of a wider network.
Anyidoho said the interception of nearly four tonnes of cocaine could not reasonably be attributed to one individual, stressing the need for investigators to identify everyone who may have facilitated the shipment.
“Smuggling drugs is not easy and to pick almost four tons and put in a container and leave. It means that there is a chain. It can’t be one person, there is a chain,” he said.
He made the comments when members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Defence and Interior Committee visited the Christian Council of Ghana to discuss concerns surrounding the cocaine controversy.
Anyidoho, who now serves as Communications Advisor to the Christian Council of Ghana, urged the relevant security agencies to go beyond the arrest or identification of individuals allegedly involved in the operation.
“If you are picking the low hanging fruits, what happens to the person behind it?” he asked, arguing that investigations must establish the full chain of responsibility.
He said the matter should not be reduced to a partisan political dispute, insisting that the implications for Ghana’s security and young people required a national response.
“And so this cocaine matter must not be politicised, it is about Ghana,” Anyidoho said.
He further described as an embarrassment reports that French authorities had expressed reservations about sharing intelligence with Ghana because of concerns over trust.
“The French authorities say they won’t share intelligence with us because they don’t trust us. It is an embarrassment to Ghana,” he said.
Anyidoho also reflected on his previous involvement in the political campaign against the then New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration following the MV Benjamin cocaine case.
He recalled that, while serving as Communications Director for then NDC presidential candidate John Evans Atta Mills during the 2006–2008 election campaign, he helped make the cocaine issue a major political theme against the Kufuor administration.
“I was the one who came up with the idea that let’s tag President Kufuor that he has turned Ghana into a cocaine coast and it worked,” he said.
He said the current controversy was therefore particularly painful for him because the NDC was now in government.
“This cocaine thing hurts me on that side of the political divide. That a party that fought cocaine sometime ago under our dispensation, this kind of thing is happening?” he said.
Anyidoho welcomed the Christian Council’s position that the Church could not remain silent over the growing threat posed by illegal drugs, saying the scale of the problem demanded cooperation among state institutions, political parties, security agencies, religious organisations and other stakeholders.
“There is obviously a cartel,” he said, while stressing that investigations must determine the full extent of the network and those responsible for facilitating the shipment.
