Kwesi Pratt In 1996!

In the face of the very determined effort by Professor John Evans Atta Mills and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to implicate the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in drug dealing, it has now emerged that the NDC also suffered the same fate when it was in power.

In 1996, a leading political activist and the Deputy General Secretary of the People Convention Party (PCP) Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr, who is also the Managing Editor of the insight newspaper, flew to London to give evidence in a major drug case involving one Ghanaian, Mr. Jack Darko and two foreign nationals in Ghana.

All three were later jailed a total of 21 years by the Crown Court at Chelmsford in England for attempting to smuggle narcotic drugs worth 60 million pounds sterling to the UK. One of the accused persons, Mr. Theo Van Der Laan, also known as Bernabus-Orbella Schreye, had told the Crown Court as part of his defense that he was blackmailed by the ten NDC government through the Bureau of National Investigations to smuggle the drugs in order to be freed from their custody.

According to Van Der Laan, he was told that the Ghana Government, then controlled by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, needed the money, and that if he did not co-operate, his Liberian wife, who was in Ghana, would be killed.According to reports from London at the time, Mr. Pratt told the crown court that the methods indicated by Van Der Laan were consistent with the methods of the BNI. Mr. Pratt, who was flown to London by the defense team of the accused persons, told the court that it was credible that the then NDC government would get involved in forcing visitors to the country to export drugs out of the country.

Mr. Pratt was further reported to have told the crown court that there were marijuana farms in Ghana, guarded by heavily armed men who chase away the police anytime they attempt to arrest them. He said that this gave the impression that wee farms in Ghana were under official protection.Mr. Pratt also attempted to tender in evidence a photocopy of Steve Mallory’s African Observer which had a report on the Benneh Affair as evidence of the security services involvement in drugs on behalf of the accused persons. This attempt was refuted by the prosecution. Speaking last Wednesday at a forum organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in Accra, Professor John Evans Atta Mills accused the ruling government of creating the enabling environment for the drug trade to thrice in this country.

Professor Atta Mills told the IEA forum, “Need I talk about the dramatic growth in drug in and through Ghana? Ghana is fast losing our hard-earned reputation because of the activities of drug barons, who because of the economic power that they wield; succeed in compromising individuals and authorities who should be enforcing our laws. Is it any wonder, that the many probes that we have had have not yielded any positive results? INDEED THE PERCEPTION OUT THERE IS THAT THE NPP GOVERNMENT HAS CREATED AN ATMOSPHERE which allows drug barons to go scot-free and sometimes even be welcome?” Professor Atta Mills said.

The law professor then claimed concern about the drug problem because of the relation between drug use and crime and its effect on health especially HIV.Indeed about a week ago, Dr. Asare the Chief Psychiatrist at the Mental Hospital gave an interview to the VOA, in which he talked about the monumental levels to which drug use in our country and indeed, also went on to say or to talk about his concern about the effects of drug use and on our human resource base. Atta Mills’ government would corporate with the appropriate agencies both local and foreign to stamp out the drug trade!” he said.