Ghana on course with drug war

Accra, Feb. 19, GNA - President John Mills said Ghana had acquitted herself well in the drug fight.

"Two years down the line, I can confidently say to the people of Ghana that we acquitted to ourselves very well in this regard," he said, adding "I have no regrets subjecting myself to a check at the Kotoka International Airport." He said subjecting himself to such a check was the surest way to lead by example as well as energise the NACOB officials not to allow any official or persons purporting to be so to bully them.

He said Ghana would not relent on the fight against the narcotics trade and that majority of Ghanaians would not to be waking up to daily stories of cocaine here, cocaine there and everywhere.

"We will continue to make Ghana an unattractive destination for the narcotics trade and will collaborate fully with cross border and other foreign operatives to flush out the drug barons and their couriers," he said.

On discipline, the President said: "When it comes to discipline on our roads, we cannot produce a script that we can be proud of.

"We are constantly waking up to gory stories about the carnage on our roads and this cannot continue," he said, adding "we cannot continue to sit and watch the wanton loss of life."

He said he had instructed the Police and other law enforcing agencies to rigidly apply the appropriate sanctions in dealing with all who fall foul of the traffic law.

He directed the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority to conduct an immediate review of internal process for the acquisition of license to ensure that licenses were not issued to those who were not qualify to have them.

He called on the Attorney General's office to review and strengthen legislation to ensure that drivers and owners of broken down vehicles that stay on the roads and cause accidents and deaths pay the price for it.

On law and order, he noted that those in leadership position bore the heaviest burden of ensuring that actions and utterances did not incite lawlessness.

"The media has a big responsibility in the effort and we must all make sure to encourage rational exchanges among reasonable people with different views," he noted.

"We must not always find fault with each other; sometimes it also helps to tell stories about Ghanaians rising to the occasion.

He called for the Broadcasting Bill which, according to him, had stayed long on the drawing board instead of being enacted to control the excesses that sometimes characterise exchange in the electronic media.

"My expectation is that when the time comes, the debate on its provision will not fall into patterns of partisan discourse," he said. Touching on corruption, President Mills said the Serious Fraud Office had been reengineered and named the Economic and Organised Crime Office EOCO with prosecutorial powers in order to give them the needed teeth to bite.

He made reference to the recent expose of corrupt activities at the Tema port and the cocoa smuggling along the country's borders and charged the Ghana Revenue Authority to "relentlessly pursue people who fail to declare or under - declare incomes to avoid paying taxes."

He argued that the principle of equity demanded that the burden of tax should be shared among all citizens.

"I expect the management of the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to act without delay to restore public confidence in the organisation," he said.

He called on the Ghana Standards Board and Food and Drugs Board to collaborate to stop the dumping of substandard goods on the Ghanaian market.

He also called on the Auditor-General to invoke the spirit and letter of Act 584 on the withholding of salaries and other emoluments and privileges to persons who fail to heed queries from that Department.

"We will continue to cooperate with civil society and anticorruption agencies to continue to wage a concerted war against corruption" he said.