The former deputy Attorney General under the John Kufuor administration is questioning the commitment of the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) to fight cocaine in the country. According to Osei Prempeh the NACOB boss Yaw Akrasi Sarpong has turned himself into an advocate for drug dealers contrary to anti-cocaine public pronouncements by NACOB officials. This follows a bail condition granted to two suspected drug dealers by a Fast Track High Court in Accra. The two were apprehended in October after 125 kg of cocaine was found hidden in their container which was part of a vessel thought to be carrying fuel shipped to the Tema port from the US. After a thorough search through the vessel and its content the slabs of cocaine were found in the container leading to the arrest of the two. The NACOB boss Mr. Akrasi Sarpong told Joy News’ Sammy Darko the suspects were granted bail to allow for NACOB to conduct thorough investigation. The bail contradicts aspects of the law which makes drug related offences non-bailable. But the NACOB boss says the bail condition was in the right direction. He said the investigation which includes a trip to Panama to check on some leads, might take about seven months to conclude and would not be prudent to keep the suspects on remand. “I think that the non-bailable is a very useful tool but not when you have to wait for seven months to get some evidence.” He feared the suspects may be released by the court for lack of evidence if the board is unable to complete investigations in time for prosecution to take place judiciously. “The intention was that we don’t want to keep them there for too long because if you keep them there for too long the next thing you see the judges will say that you have no evidence and they will acquit and discharge them and you would not have done justice to the rule of law,” he said. Describing one of the suspects as a “hard working young man who imports fuel additives, lubricants for Goil,” the NACOB boss said there has to be an incontrovertible evidence for prosecution to take place. He suspects the container might have been tempered with in Panama where the vessel was transshipped. “By giving them bail I don’t think it is opposed to the spirit of the letter [of the constitution]," he said. Akrasi Sarpong held that the Board has proposed a hefty surety as bail bond for the suspects which makes it almost implausible for the suspects to jump bail.