The Jatikay Centre for Human Security and Peace Building has called on President John Dramani Mahama to consider changing key officials responsible for Ghana’s security and cargo-control systems amid what it describes as an emerging narcotics trafficking threat.
The Centre said the recent series of large-scale narcotics consignments linked to Ghana raised serious questions about the country’s intelligence, border-control and port-security systems.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, the Executive Director of the Centre, Adib Saani, welcomed the President’s decision to convene security, intelligence, narcotics-control, customs, port and other relevant stakeholders to address the situation.
However, the Centre said the scale and frequency of the narcotics cases required measures beyond arrests and seizures.
It argued that the developments demanded a comprehensive assessment of whether Ghana’s security and intelligence architecture had been sufficiently proactive in identifying and disrupting emerging trafficking threats.
Calls for fresh leadership
Jatikay said the President’s intervention was necessary but questioned why decisive action had not been taken earlier despite what it described as a pattern of major international narcotics seizures.
“The National Security Coordinator, in particular, should have anticipated the threat rather than responding after multiple major international seizures,” the Centre said.
As an immediate confidence-building measure, it urged the President to consider changing key officers overseeing different stages of the security and cargo-control chain.
The Centre also called for an independent vulnerability assessment of the systems involved in detecting and preventing narcotics trafficking.
It stressed that the call for changes should not be interpreted as an allegation of wrongdoing against any individual, but rather as a step towards restoring public confidence and providing fresh leadership where serious vulnerabilities may have emerged.
Probe criminal networks
Beyond personnel and institutional reforms, Jatikay called for investigations into the wider networks behind the narcotics consignments.
The Centre said law enforcement agencies must move beyond arresting couriers and identify the financiers, facilitators, compromised insiders and international criminal networks allegedly involved in the trafficking operations.
It said tracing the financial and organisational structures behind the consignments would be critical to disrupting the networks rather than merely intercepting individual shipments.
National security concern
Jatikay said the issue should no longer be treated solely as a narcotics-control matter, arguing that the developments posed broader risks to Ghana’s national security and institutional integrity.
“This is no longer simply a narcotics-control issue. It is a national security and institutional integrity challenge,” the Centre said.
It warned that Ghana could not afford to become a logistics hub for transnational organised crime.
The statement follows the President’s decision to bring together key security and state agencies to examine the recent narcotics-related developments and strengthen measures to prevent Ghana from being exploited as a transit point for international drug trafficking.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
