President Kufuor has appointed General Joshua Hamidu as the new Chairman of the reconstituted Narcotics Control Board.

Until his new appointment, General Hamidu was Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria. He replaced the Deputy Interior Minister, Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu, who was the chairman of the Board until his boss the Interior Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah assumed an oversight responsibility for the institution.

NACOB has by convention been under the chairmanship of a deputy minister for the Interior; but the current changes are seen as a way of giving the Board some autonomy from the Interior Ministry.

Mr. Ben Botwe of the Foods and Drugs Board assumes the role of Executive Secretary of the Board, a position previously held by Major General Richardson Baiden who has returned to the barracks and to the Armed Forces Staff College.

The Interior Minister, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah is expected to issue a statement on the new appointments when he returns from his trip abroad next week.