... COCAINE FLOP
Demands answers from security chiefs

THE CHRONICLE can reveal that President John Agyekum Kufuor is deeply worried and angry with his Security Chiefs over a recent monumental security blunder that culminated in a dramatic escape of a cocaine-ladden vessel from our territorial waters despite adequate intelligence information to the security agencies.
Accordingly, the President has charged his Security Chiefs to provide answers as to why and how the cocaine-laden Vessel, MT Jano (not MV Jano) sailed through our territorial waters without being captured.
The President’s anger was sparked by a publication by The Chronicle last week, thoroughly revealing how the national security setup had once again, disappointed the nation on a drug-related matter at a time the MV Benjamin scandal is still fresh in the minds of Ghanaians.
A worried President Kufuor reportedly charged at his Security Lords, “Unlike the other case, I demand immediate answers on this particular case,” clearly pointing out his frustrations over the security blunder.
Perplexed and tensed up over the President’s directive on the security fiasco, Security Bosses got together a team of operational men from the various security agencies in a crisis meeting late last week, and charged them to look into what might have accounted for the security failure.
Sources could not disclose the full list of the participants at the crisis meeting but those present included, Interior Minister, Mr. Albert Kan Dapaah; Mr. Afari from the National Security Ministry; Mr. Adu Amankwaa, Head of the Organized Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service; Mr. Mark Ewontoma, Operations Director of the Narcotic Control Board and other top Commanders of the Ghana Armed Forces drawn mainly from the Naval Command.
Ahead of the commencement of investigations by the team of security men, The Chronicle can reveal that a significant blame game has already started with one security establishment accusing the other of not doing much to ensure the arrest of the cocaine vessel.
Naval sources say the top Naval Command have been pointing accusing fingers at the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB), for not providing them with adequate information to enable them track down the vessel.
Yesterday, Mr. Ewontoma, Director of Operations of the anti-drug Institution, who had been mentioned by sources at Ghana Navy as being the one who was passing on intelligence information on the vessel to Navy, declined to comment on the accusation that he did not provide enough information to the Military, hence the failure.
The NACOB operations man referred this reporter to Mr. Ben Botwe, the newly appointed Executive Secretary of NACOB for any information that was being sought. Mr. Botwe also declined to comment on the issue but pointed out that as far as he was concerned, NACOB did what it had to do about the vessel.
He however indicated that he was not interested in blame games and would therefore not respond to any accusation from any quarters and referred the paper to the Interior Minister whom he said had been briefed adequately on the issue.
Interior Minister, Mr. Kan-Dapaah said investigations were ongoing about the matter and so would want that investigators be allowed to do their work for answers to be found to many questions that ought to be answered on the MT Jano case.
Meanwhile, latest intelligence information suggests that the cocaine vessel spent several days floating on our waters after it run out of fuel days after theNavy and the entire security set-up of the nation had been alerted.
It was after those several days that a local vessel, Tropic Sun, was contacted by an agent to supply fuel to the distressed MT Jano.