The Jatikay Centre for Human Security and Peace Building has called on President John Dramani Mahama to consider changing key officials responsible for Ghana’s security and cargo-control chain amid growing concerns over narcotics trafficking through the country.
In a statement dated September 15, 2026, the Centre welcomed the President’s decision to convene Ghana’s security, intelligence, narcotics-control, customs, port and other relevant stakeholders following a series of large-scale narcotics consignments linked to Ghana.
The Centre, however, said the scale and frequency of recent cases required more than arrests and seizures, raising questions about Ghana’s intelligence, border-control and port-security systems.
According to the Jatikay Centre, the situation also raises concerns about whether those responsible for anticipating and disrupting narcotics trafficking threats have been sufficiently proactive.
“The President’s direct intervention is necessary, but it also raises the uncomfortable question of how such a serious pattern could develop without earlier, decisive intervention from the national security coordination architecture,” the statement said.
It added that the National Security Coordinator, in particular, should have anticipated the threat rather than responding after multiple major international seizures.
As an immediate confidence-building measure, the Centre urged the President to consider changing key officers responsible for the various stages of the security and cargo-control chain.
It also called for the relevant systems to be subjected to an independent vulnerability assessment.
The Centre said such a move should not be interpreted as an allegation of wrongdoing against any individual, but rather as a necessary step to restore public confidence and ensure fresh leadership where serious vulnerabilities may have emerged.
The Jatikay Centre further urged authorities to expand investigations beyond couriers and identify the financiers, facilitators, compromised insiders and international criminal networks allegedly behind the narcotics consignments.
“This is no longer simply a narcotics-control issue. It is a national security and institutional integrity challenge,” the statement said.
The Centre warned that Ghana could not afford to become a logistics hub for transnational organised crime.
The statement was signed by Adib Saani, Executive Director of the Jatikay Centre for Human Security and Peace Building.
