By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Nov. 23, 2014
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

Literally caught with its pants down and all, the evidently shameless Mahama government operatives are desperately thrashing about, hoping against hope that, somehow, the clear evidence of apparent official involvement in the Nayele Ametefe Scandal can simply be denied and/or facilely wished away, as the National Democratic Congress' human attack dogs have been known to do in the recent past.

In the latest of such red-herring gimmickry, the country's Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, is daring the British High Commissioner to Ghana to publicly disclose whether the Ghanaian woman drug courier nabbed at London's Heathrow Airport, Ms. Nayele Ametefe (aka Ruby Adu-Gyamfi), was traveling on a Ghanaian diplomatic passport at the time of her arrest for possessing 12.5 kgs of the globally banned substance commonly known as cocaine (See "Cocaine Saga: Gov't Dares UK to Speak on Diplomatic Passport Claims" Citifmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 11/23/14).

The British have already made it crystal clear that the recently dissolved Ghana Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), had not in any way, shape or form collaborated with its London counterparts in nabbing Ms. Ametefe, who has been on their criminal suspects' list since 2009. In sum, for anybody with a passable appreciation of the English language, the unmistakable contention of the British High Commissioner to Ghana is that the erstwhile Akrasi Sarpong-headed NACOB may very well have condoned, or even connived with, the criminal suspect's attempt to flood the UK drug market with the banned substance.

The British authorities also say that their investigations into the Ametefe racket is ongoing; and so it is rather preposterous for Ghana's communications minister to presume that he could so cavalierly prejudice the forensic integrity of Scotland Yard. At best, what Dr. Omane-Boamah may end up doing is to unwisely drive a deep diplomatic wedge between Ghana and its former colonial overlord. At the worst, such gratuitous act of provocation, on the part of the desperate Mahama government, could well lead to the unilateral suspension of diplomatic relations between Britain and Ghana.

In effect, Dr. Omane-Boamah would do the NDC regime and Ghana, at large, great good by not inadvisably attempting to either push the luck of the Mahama government too hard or the Cameron government beyond the sufferable. At any rate, the relevant question at stake here is not whether Ms. Ametefe was traveling on a Ghanaian diplomatic passport, when the well-known NDC socialite was arrested at Heathrow Airport between November 9 and 10. Rather, it regards whether highly placed insiders of the Mahama government could have done considerably more to stop the mega-drug courier from attempting to inundate Britain's drug market with commercial-grade cocaine. And already, President John Dramani Mahama appears to have eloquently and affirmatively answered his British opposite number by summarily dissolving the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB).

Dr. Omane-Boamah does not need three medical degrees to clearly and fully appreciate the preceding fact. In the final analysis, what matters most here is whether, indeed, Ms. Ametefe was carrying an authentic Ghanaian passport, and one that was issued by the Mahama government which, at any rate, would make the Government of Ghana legally responsible, whether Ms. Ametefe was traveling on a diplomatic passport or not.

______________________________________________________________