The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has accused the government of using political distractions and high-profile arrests to divert public attention from Ghana’s growing drug-trafficking problem.

He says the government must instead focus on identifying those behind major narcotics shipments linked to Ghana and addressing security lapses that have allowed such consignments to leave the country.

Speaking at the launch of the 30th Ghana Journalists Association Media Awards, Mr Afenyo-Markin said the Minority’s attempts to secure a parliamentary inquiry into recent cocaine seizures had been blocked.

“Whenever the Minority focuses on consensus, citizens demand accountability on these massive security failures; this government deploys a deliberate red herring to swerve public discourse, rather than tackling possible villains and clearing our national reputation. State security agencies are then deployed against political opponents.”

Mr Afenyo-Markin also accused the government of using high-profile arrests to generate partisan controversy and divert the media from investigating major cocaine seizures involving consignments linked to Ghana.

“These orchestrated spectacles are not genuine law enforcement actions. They are calculated red herrings, engineered to saturate news cycles, generate partisan noise, and pull the Ghanaian press away from investigating tons of cocaine seized abroad and a damaging fifth-place ranking at the port of Antwerp.”

He therefore charged journalists to intensify investigations into the movement of narcotics through Ghana’s ports and borders, particularly where parliamentary oversight has been limited.

“Do not settle for the sanitised government press statement or succumb to political diversion. Refuse the red herring. Maintain absolute focus on the facts, follow the trail of these narcotic shipments, expose institutional complicity and demand accountability for the sovereign people of Ghana.”

The Minority Leader said Parliament’s inability to proceed with its proposed inquiry makes the role of investigative journalism even more important.