Ntim Fordjour sets records straight on claims NPP removed NACOC from port inspections

Assin South MP and Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, dismissed claims that the previous NPP government removed the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC) from port inspection duties. Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, Fordjour described the allegation as false and propaganda. He insisted that NACOC continues to inspect containers at the ports, with importers and exporters confirming this fact over the past two decades.

Fordjour argued that the previous government streamlined port inspections to minimize delays and demurrage costs, which had previously caused corruption. The former administration had reduced the number of institutions inspecting goods at the ports from 16 to three – the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Customs, and the Ghana Standards Authority.

NACOC operates as an intelligence body, relaying suspicious information to other institutions upon the arrival of containers. Fordjour questioned the rationale behind the claim, emphasizing that Ghana would not have seized significant amounts of cocaine and ranked high in trafficking reports if NACOC had been removed from the ports.

He added that recent heightened surveillance is now exposing the extent of the drug trafficking issue.