News:
September 24, 2026
The Minority Caucus in Parliament has accused the government of deploying state security agencies to arrest opposition figures and citizens in a bid to prevent Parliament from examining an escalating narcotics crisis it does not want discussed. In a statement Wednesday, the Caucus said the attempted arrest of Hon. Nana Adjei Baffour Awuah, MP for Manhyia South, at the High Court and the midnight detention of nurse Salomey Awiti Bafoh formed part of a pattern that unfolded in the same week the Minority demanded Parliament’s recall.
At the heart of the crisis, the Minority said, are a series of major seizures linked to Ghana: approximately 3.9 tonnes of cocaine seized by French authorities at the Port of Dunkirk on 10 September 2026 from a container of plastic waste that had departed Ghana; more than 3.3 tonnes at Pedu Junction in March 2025; 866 parcels of suspected cocaine at a Tema Harbour warehouse in August 2026; and 320 kilogrammes of methamphetamine seized by Australian authorities in June 2026 from a consignment traced to Ghana.
The Caucus said these raise grave questions about the integrity of Ghana’s ports, scanning and intelligence systems, and whether the country is being used as a transit point for international narcotics trafficking. On 18 September 2026, Minority Members exceeding the constitutional threshold formally requested a meeting of Parliament to inquire into the seizures; the Speaker acknowledged receipt, and the Constitution now requires him to summon Parliament within seven days and Parliament to convene within seven days of that summons.
The Minority said it was no accident that the security actions occurred as it pressed for the recall. Hon. Awuah is a signatory to the recall request and one of the leading Minority voices shaping the strategy to hold the government accountable for the cocaine crisis. “A State that arrests a nurse at midnight and then lays hands on her lawyer at the door of the High Court is not enforcing the law. It is sending a threatening message,” the statement said, adding that the Caucus rejects that message completely.
According to the Minority, Madam Bafoh, a nurse, was arrested at about 11:00 PM on Saturday, 12 September 2026, when officers of the National Signals Bureau descended on her residence at Hansua, Techiman. She is accused of abetting the publication of false news, a misdemeanour. The Caucus said she was denied access to her lawyers and family until her transfer to the Police CID Special Investigation Unit on Tuesday, 15 September, and did not appear before any court until Wednesday, 16 September—more than four days after her arrest, in violation of the constitutional 48-hour rule. She was remanded for two weeks on a single misdemeanour charge, even though President John Dramani Mahama had assented to the Community Service Act, 2026, barely seventeen days earlier. The Minority questioned why an intelligence agency was deployed at night against a citizen over a speech offence and under what statutory authority.
The statement also detailed the confrontation at the High Court on Wednesday, saying that immediately after the High Court, Criminal Division, adjourned proceedings on Madam Bafoh’s bail application, a woman who said she was an EOCO officer confronted Hon. Awuah within the court precincts, presented no proper identification, physically blocked him from reaching his vehicle, and resorted to force when lawyers and citizens intervened.
The Minority said EOCO’s subsequent press release confirmed every element of the conduct it sought to defend: it admitted the officers were EOCO’s, rested the operation on two invitations said to have been issued in February 2026, failed to state the offence under investigation, whether any warrant was obtained, or from which court, and announced that two persons who intervened were “being assessed” for further action. “Having failed to arrest counsel, EOCO now turns its threats on those who stood beside him,” the Minority said.
The Minority argued that the timing exposed the government’s motive. EOCO had seven months to pursue its February invitations, yet it moved within days of the constitutional deadline for recalling Parliament, against a signatory to the recall request and a Member leading the accountability strategy, at the moment he stepped out of court having argued for a detained citizen’s liberty.
“It is no longer possible to speak of coincidence,” the statement said, describing the week’s events—a midnight raid, days of incommunicado detention, an arraignment without notice, a remand on a misdemeanour, an attempted seizure of defence counsel at the courthouse, and a press release threatening citizens—as marks of State agencies being deployed as political instruments against the Opposition and dissenting citizens. “Tonnes of cocaine are leaving our ports. The State’s energy should be spent pursuing the traffickers, not the legislators asking how they got through.”
The Minority demanded the immediate grant of bail to Madam Bafoh; a full public account from the Minister for the Interior and the Minister for National Security on the legal basis for the National Signals Bureau’s midnight arrest and the failure to bring her to court within 48 hours; immediate publication by EOCO of the offence under investigation, any warrant, and the identity of the officer involved; withdrawal of threats against the two interveners; and an undertaking that future process concerning an MP will be pursued through the Speaker in accordance with the Standing Orders.
It also called for a CHRAJ investigation into violations of Madam Bafoh’s fundamental rights and assurances from the Judicial Service that court precincts will be protected from intimidation of litigants and counsel. “The Minority will not be deterred,” the statement concluded. “Parliament will be recalled, the questions about cocaine leaving our ports will be asked, and those responsible will be required to answer.”
Ghanamps.com