Afenyo-Markin Demands Crackdown On Drug Barons Rather than Opposition MPs by Gov’t
Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has accused the government of being shy of focusing on what matters while prioritising optics and being ultra-sensitive to criticism.
According to him, a state that aggressively pursues a lawyer-legislator defending a victim of human rights abuse must show equal, if not greater, determination in fighting drug barons using Ghana as a major global transhipment hub.
Citing research in a statement issued on October 1, 2026, he said the estimated total street value of the cocaine seized is as high as $1.7 billion.
Afenyo-Markin said this in reference to the attempted arrest of Hon. Baffour Awuah, the MP for Manhyia South constituency, during a confrontation with an EOCO official on September 23 after arguing a bail application for a detained client.
“According to his account, recorded live on video, no warrant or identification was produced. A warrant was obtained a week later, with the court directing that it be executed through the Speaker of Parliament,” he said.
He added that Baffour Awuah referred EOCO’s February invitations to the Clerk of Parliament, but EOCO refused to recognise correspondence from the Clerk, questioning the basis on which EOCO claimed to have exhausted reasonable means of securing his attendance.
“It is regrettable that a false impression is being created that the MP deliberately avoided EOCO,” he said.
He disclosed that on October 1, the MP voluntarily reported to EOCO with his lawyer and fellow MPs but was kept waiting for hours before questioning began, raising serious concerns about fairness.
“This NDC culture of using the coercive powers of the state to punish suspects should have been left behind with the other excesses of the PNDC era,” he noted.
Afenyo-Markin stressed that the Minority does not seek to prejudge the SIC Life Savings & Loans investigation, insisting no one is above the law, EOCO included, but believes the MP’s treatment forms part of a broader attempt to intimidate critical opposition voices.
He listed recent drug seizures linked to Ghana, including nearly 4,500 kilograms of cocaine seized at the port of Amsterdam concealed in timber supplied by a Ghanaian company, nearly 3.9 tonnes that reached Dunkirk in a container shipped from Ghana, 320 kilograms of methamphetamine worth A$296 million that reached Australia in a consignment containing Ghanaian charcoal, and 3.3 tonnes intercepted beneath sand in a tipper truck at Pedu Junction.
“Ghanaians want to know: who are the financiers, organisers and beneficiaries? Where is the comparable zeal of our security agencies in pursuing them?” he quizzed.
He also slammed the government over the surge in illegal mining, accusing it of being more interested in the foreign exchange it earns from galamsey than the damage it causes, and questioned the July 2025 directive to investigate two NDC officials over galamsey allegations.
“What we are witnessing is the golden age of impunity, epitomised by the surge in both galamsey and drug trafficking,” he said.
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