News:
September 30, 2026
The Minority in Parliament has strongly criticized Speaker Alban Sumana Bagbin’s rejection of its motion for a parliamentary investigation into the recent cocaine menace, describing the ruling as a failure of the integrity required of Parliament to discharge its constitutional duties. Addressing a press briefing after the ruling, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin expressed disappointment, stating that the Speaker did not explain how the matters fell outside Parliament’s constitutional jurisdiction to inquire into the conduct, administration, and effectiveness of public institutions.
“This ruling by Mr. Speaker has failed the integrity tests required of Parliament to discharge its duties,” Afenyo-Markin declared, adding that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government appears afraid of its own failures. He emphasized that for the avoidance of doubt, Article 93(2) of the Constitution vests legislative power in Parliament, while Article 101 mandates the appointment of committees as necessary for the effective discharge of functions. Article 103(3), he noted, expressly empowers parliamentary committees to investigate and inquire into the activities and administration of ministries, departments, and agencies.
The Minority Leader further argued that Article 103(3) grants committees the power, rights, and privileges of a High Court for enforcing witness attendance, examining witnesses, and compelling the production of documents. He submitted that these provisions are crucial because the motion filed before the House does not seek to try any accused person, determine criminal liability, pronounce on guilt or innocence, assess the credibility of prosecution witnesses, or decide on evidence properly before a court. “The government of our motion is institutional oversight,” he stated, explaining that it asks whether state institutions responsible for narcotics control, customs administration, port and airport security, intelligence gathering, maritime surveillance, and border protection have discharged their responsibilities effectively amid successive major narcotic incidents since January 2025.
Afenyo-Markin stressed that the courts are concerned with the criminal liability of particular accused persons, while Parliament is concerned with the performance, administration, and accountability of public institutions. He stated that these are separate constitutional functions, even where they arise from the same underlying facts, and that the reliance on Article 101, which gives Parliament authority to regulate its own procedure through standing orders, comes into play. The Speaker’s ruling, he said, should operate within Parliament’s constitutional framework and ought to be properly determined by allowing arguments for and against.
The Minority Leader pointed out that the standing orders prohibit discussion of pending litigation only when raised in a manner that may prejudice the interests of parties in the pending action. He explained that if a committee had been established and any issue aimed at prejudicing a case already in court arose, counsel for any affected party could raise a preliminary objection for a determination. Therefore, the proper question is not simply whether there is a case in court, but whether the particular parliamentary inquiry would prejudice a determination of that case, which must be determined at a full hearing.
Afenyo-Markin argued that the motion could be framed and conducted to avoid prejudice entirely. He suggested that the proposed ad hoc committee need not inquire into whether any named accused person committed a criminal offense, determine whether any prosecution witness is truthful, examine the admissibility of evidence before the court, or consider matters that go directly to the determination of criminal guilt. Instead, the committee could examine container scanning procedures, customs control, port access systems, cargo inspection, intelligence sharing, institutional coordination, freight forwarding regulation, export controls, warehouse security, maritime supervision, and the progress of state institutions in identifying financiers and organizers of large-scale narcotic networks.
He noted that none of those institutional systems is an accused person before a court, and that the scanning regime at ports, effectiveness of customs risk profiling, inter-agency intelligence sharing, adequacy of narcotic institutional capacity, and integrity of export control systems are not on trial. These matters, he submitted, fall properly within Parliament’s constitutional oversight responsibility under Article 103. He added that Article 115 guarantees freedom of speech, debate, and proceedings in Parliament, and Article 116 protects members from civil and criminal proceedings in respect of matters brought before Parliament, demonstrating that the Constitution contemplates Parliament as an independent institution with its own deliberative and oversight responsibility.
The Minority Leader stated that the matters before them involve approximately 3.9 tons of cocaine intercepted in France after reportedly departing Ghana, more than 3.3 tons intercepted at Pedro Junction, and significant seizures involving Ghanaian ports and international interceptions linked to consignments originating from Ghana. He noted that the record identifies these incidents as raising questions about national security, border integrity, institutional accountability, and Ghana’s international reputation. He added that the Minister of Interior himself had said Ghana is no longer respected by other intelligence agencies overseas and that officials at various institutions have undermined the integrity of intelligence because they have been compromised.
“We will not let this matter rest. Never,” Afenyo-Markin declared, stating that the Minority will exercise its options within the Constitution and its own standing orders to ensure the narcotic issue is brought back onto the front burner. He criticized the Majority for being quick to support the Speaker and rise for adjournment because they do not want scrutiny, saying, “All of a sudden, the 24-hour economy is turning to 24-hour cocaine.” He emphasized that the Majority is not interested in scrutiny, but the Minority will not rest and will do what it has to do at the right time to brief the people of Ghana, acting in the national interest and for the good of democracy.
Ghanamps.com