NACOB deserves autonomy to be more effective – Ex-National Security boss

A former National Security Coordinator, Mr. K.B. Quantson, has supported the Narcotics Control Board’s (NACOB) demand to be granted autonomy. NACOB is presently part of the Interior Ministry. According to Mr. Quantson, NACOB would work more effectively and efficiently if government grants them autonomy since they do not seem to be doing much now to fight the increasing drugs menace. NACOB has submitted a draft law to the Attorney General’s Department seeking autonomy from the Interior Ministry.

The head of Communications at the Board, Francis Opoku Amoah, who spoke on PM Express on Multi TV, disclosed that NACOB was facing a lot of challenges, most of them financial and logistical, in its fight against the trafficking and use of drugs. He attributed the financial constraints to the inability of NACOB to generate funds internally adding if they are granted autonomy, they would be given their own budgetary allocation which will give them a lot of resources to work with. He added that the Board also wanted to be clothed with powers to confiscate assets of drug dealers and the right to carry arms. “I believe that if that law is approved it’s going to give us the power to carry arms because we know that in certain parts of Africa, in Nigeria and other places, the Narcotics Control over there, they are armed and therefore we’re hoping that when it is passed all these things will help us make sure that the fight on the drug menace is upped.” And Mr. Quantson has expressed his whole-hearted support for the proposals.

Speaking on Dwaso Nsem on Adom FM on Wednesday, the security capo said because of its limited resources, the Board is not able to sometimes pursue cases to its conclusion, giving room for guilty people to go scot free. He also advocated that the Board be empowered to prosecute its own cases to help prevent manipulation of the system and ensure that drug traffickers are not let off.

Mr. Quantson said the judicial system had been corrupted from the bottom resulting in delays in judgement adding there had been instances where the judiciary had been manipulated to free drug barons while some judges, out of greed, collect bribes and allow guilty people to go free. He claimed that he had personally witnessed a case where the culprit should have been imprisoned for five years but was only fined and freed by the judge. Mr. K.B. Quantson stressed that the drug menace has a direct negative effect on the economy therefore the government should make sure it does it possible best to clamp down the menace one of them being granting NACOB autonomy to make them more effective. Politics and Cocaine Mr. Quantson also shared his views on the brouhaha surrounding recent comments by the NACOB boss, Yaw Akrasi Sarpong that some politicians intended to use drug money to fund campaigns for the 2012 elections. He stated that lack of effective monitoring mechanisms into the funding of political parties has created the room for suspicion while the amount of money political parties spend on campaigning raises question marks about their sources of funding. He conceded that even though investors and businessmen may sponsor the parties, the lavish scale on which they run their campaign leaves much to be desired adding that he suspects that some of the funds must be coming from ‘under the bag’.

Mr. Quantson called for some mechanisms to monitor elections expenditure of political parties while a ceiling should be placed on the expenditure of political parties so that when they exceed it, they can be open to auditing and investigations and that will also ensure that the country’s democracy is not undermined by criminals and drug barons. The security expert said any government that wants to really clamp down on the drugs trade and use must have a strong political will to put in place the right legislative instruments to check it.

Mr. Quantson also urged all hands to be on deck to help win the war against narcotics since it was not only the problem of government or the security agencies. He suggested that citizen education must be increased so people can appreciate the enormity of the situation and the role they have to play in bringing it down. He also urged the media to assist in the fight against drugs by exposing traffickers and asking the pertinent questions that would bring results.