Akufo-Addo must answer for missing diplomatic passports - Otokunor

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, NPP Flagbearer

A member of the communication team of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Peter Boamah Otokunor has said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo should be blamed for missing diplomatic passports while he was Foreign minister.

He claimed that NPP flag bearer as the Foreign Affairs Minister in the erstwhile Kufuor administration issued diplomatic passports to his cronies to aid them in their narcotic trade.

Otokunor’s assertion comes after the Federal Police Department of Brazil reported that a Ghanaian drug convict, Raymond Kwame Amankwah, who is serving a 14-year prison term in Brazil was at the time of his arrest holding a diplomatic passport issued by the Republic of Ghana.

The NDC have often associated Amankwah with Nana Akufo-Addo since the former was arrested at the Pinto Martins Airport in Fortaleza on December 1, 2007 through collaboration between the German Federal Police and their Brazilian counterparts for engaging in international drug trafficking.

The NDC pokes the NPP flag bearer to extricate himself from allegations of drug use and also allegedly associating with people who are on record to have been convicted of drug-trafficking.

Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Monday, Peter Boamah Otokunor said the diplomatic passport Raymond Amakwah held was issued at the time Nana Akufo-Addo was the Foreign Affairs Minister.

He alleged that Nana Akufo-Addo authorized the diplomatic passport to be issued to Raymond Amankwah to enable him have easy access to smuggle the narcotic drugs outside the country. It therefore makes Nana Addo an accomplice of the drug baron.

Otokunor said Nana Akufo-Addo’s role in reverting Raymond Amankwah's confiscated assets back to him which is contrary to the law confiscating assets of drug convicts in the country indicates that he (Nana) supported the narcotic trade.

“Nana Akufo-Addo as the flag bearer of NPP claiming that he is competent and a man of integrity could not use his so-called powerful political judgment to protect the property of the state?" he quizzed.

Otokunor believes the NPP flag bearer must tell Ghanaians why he decided to issue a diplomatic passport to a drug baron; something he said Nana claimed to frown upon.

He called for more investigations into the issue to unravel the whereabouts of the rest of the drug barons wanted by the Brazilian security officials.

Otokunor vowed government's commitment to combat the drug trade and to make Ghana an unattractive destination for drug barons.