Save the Republic Pressure Group has criticised President John Mahama’s planned meeting on border security and narcotics control, describing it as an attempt by the government to use public relations to address a serious national security crisis.
The group’s Convener, private legal practitioner Kwesi Botchway Jnr, said the planned meeting, scheduled for Thursday, September 17, comes after a series of major narcotics seizures linked to Ghana.
“We say this without equivocation: This meeting is an attempt by government to use public relations to fight a serious national security crisis,” he said at a press conference.
According to Mr Botchway, the government’s decision to convene key institutions only after several major consignments had been intercepted demonstrated a reactive approach to the problem.
He questioned where intelligence, surveillance, cargo and passenger screening, inter-agency coordination and enforcement had been before the recent seizures.
The group also raised concerns over the reported exclusion of several key security institutions and officials from the meeting, including the National Security Coordinator, Director-General of the National Signals Bureau, Comptroller-General of the Ghana Immigration Service, Inspector-General of Police, Chief of the Defence Staff and Military Intelligence.
Mr Botchway argued that the institutions responsible for preventing narcotics trafficking should be held accountable for any failures that allowed Ghana to become a transit point for international drug networks.
“President Mahama cannot continue to govern by committee whenever a crisis explodes,” he said, calling instead for responsibility, consequences and changes at the leadership level.