The Minority in Parliament has demanded a full-scale, independent parliamentary inquiry into what it describes as Ghana’s repeated appearance in major narcotics trafficking cases both at home and abroad over the past eighteen months.
In a statement signed by the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Committee on Defence and Interior, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, the Minority expressed grave alarm at the frequency and scale of drug seizures linked to Ghana under the current administration, putting the total value at well over US$1 billion in under two years.
The Minority traced a chronology of incidents beginning with seizures on Ghanaian soil.
On 4th March 2025, the National Intelligence Bureau intercepted a tipper truck at Pedu Junction in Cape Coast carrying over 3.3 tonnes of cocaine concealed beneath sand.
The consignment, enroute from Takoradi to Accra, was estimated at a street value exceeding US$350 million. Within the same period, a second consignment of an estimated 120 slabs of cocaine, valued at approximately US$150 million, was intercepted along the Takoradi–Cape Coast highway.
On 5th August 2026, the Tema Regional Police Command seized 866 parcels of suspected cocaine concealed in sacks of gari at a warehouse within the Tema Harbour enclave, valued at US$6.9 million.
Alongside these seizures, the Minority cited two unresolved incidents: the landing of an aircraft at Kotoka International Airport on or around 20th March 2025, allegedly carrying narcotics and undeclared US currency from Gran Canaria; and the MV Sankofa affair of July 2025, in which a vessel found sailing under a forged flag and liable to a fine of almost GH¢12 million was released by the Ghana Maritime Authority after payment of only a fraction of that sum and without full inspection of its cargo.
The vessel was arrested days later in Senegal carrying narcotics.
Beyond the country’s borders, the Minority pointed to two major seizures traced to Ghanaian consignments.
On 18th June 2026, Australian customs authorities seized 320kg of methamphetamine, valued at US$261 million, concealed in a charcoal consignment traced to Ghana.
On 10th September 2026, Reuters reported that French customs officers at the port of Dunkirk seized nearly 3.9 metric tonnes of cocaine, valued at over US$260 million, concealed in a container of plastic waste that had departed from Ghana.
The Minority argued that what happens after the cameras leave is equally troubling.
In the Pedu Junction matter, it noted that more than a year after the seizure, only the driver, a housemaid, and a handful of peripheral suspects have been arraigned and remain on bail, while the alleged financiers behind the US$350 million shipment remain unidentified.
“This pattern — in which couriers, drivers, mates, and freight-forwarding agents are paraded before the courts while the true owners of these consignments walk free — raises serious questions about the seriousness, independence, and reach of investigations under this Government,” the statement said.
The Minority also referenced long-standing international drug enforcement estimates that only around one in ten trafficked narcotics consignments is ever intercepted, saying Ghanaians should be allowed to draw their own conclusions about what that detection rate means for the volume of drugs possibly moving through the country’s ports, airports and waters undetected.
The statement accused key state agencies of silence, noting that Ghana’s port authorities have offered no public account of the Dunkirk seizure, NACOC has been “conspicuously quiet,” and the Ghana Maritime Authority has never explained the reduced fine and release of the MV Sankofa.
The Minority is demanding that the sector Ministers and heads of the implicated agencies be summoned to appear before Parliament to give a full public account of:
The status and outcome of investigations into every seizure listed, including why prosecutions have targeted only low-level couriers rather than financiers and principal traffickers;
The circumstances surrounding the release of the MV Sankofa, including who authorised the reduced fine and the decision to allow the vessel to sail without full inspection; and
The concrete measures being taken to secure Ghana’s ports, airports and territorial waters against continued exploitation by international drug cartels.
The proposed inquiry would examine possible complicity, negligence or failure of oversight by the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Transport, NACOC leadership, the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, the Ghana Immigration Service, and the Bureau of National Investigations.
“Ghana’s international reputation, and the safety of our young people from the scourge of narcotics, cannot be held hostage to official silence or political convenience,” the statement declared. “The Minority will not relent until the truth is known and those found responsible are held accountable.”
By Gifty Boateng