News:
June 28, 2011
The Member of Parliament for Assin North, Kennedy Ohene Agyepong, has seized on threats by the acting head of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) to track down politicians who sponsor their campaigns with drug money, as the perfect opportunity for him to clear his name of persistent rumours that he is a drug dealer.
The NPP MP had cocaine allegations swirling around him even before he entered Parliament in 2004, and says he hopes to disentangle himself from the perception, often cooked up by his political opponents once and for all.
In one of such accusations which caused a huge media blitz in March 2011, NDC sympathiser and Managing Editor of the Al-Hajj newspaper, Alhaji Bature Iddrisu, challenged the wealthy MP and businessman, to prove to the world that his riches were derived from the sale of illicit drugs.
In the light of such recurring accusations, Hon. Agyepong has welcomed Mr. Akrasi Sarpong’s determination to smoke out politicians using drugs money for their campaigns.
He however believes it would be appropriate for Mr. Sarpong to name and shame such politicians rather than warn them to resist the temptation to use such funds for their campaigns.
“That is good. If he has evidence that indeed a politician is doing that, why not? He can go ahead and do it. I am glad about them coming out because that will vindicate some of us. So long as he has his evidence and can trace them, they are not above the law. It should not even be about using it for campaign but the mere fact that you are dealing in drugs, if they arrest you I support that. There is nothing wrong with the statement.
“But for people to sit there without even knowing your background, they disgrace you everywhere including the internet forgetting that I hustled from my village, Germany, America and the rest to make it. We were in Germany last week, and a lady was talking to her friend and she said one of the NPP people who came is a drug baron referring to me. What is this?” he lamented on Citi News.
“My position if indeed it is true,” he continued, “they (NACOB) should come out and tell everybody”.
Hon. Kennedy Agyapong also alleged that some Government officials are conspiring with some officials of the NDC to frame him up on drugs charges.
He has thus cautioned the Narcotics Control Board to do proper investigations so they don’t end up jailing innocent politicians.
The NACOB boss’s threats followed the recently launched 2011 World Drug Report which estimates that about 21 tonnes of cocaine was trafficked via West Africa to Europe in 2009, a significant drop from 47 tonnes two years earlier.
The report says while global markets for cocaine, heroin and cannabis declined or remained stable, the production and abuse of prescription for opiod drugs and new synthetic drugs rose.
The launch of the World Drug Report was just a couple of days ahead of the 2011 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking which fell on Sunday June 26.
Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board has been holding a series of anti-drug abuse fora across the country in that regard.
Source: citifmonline.com