Members of Parliament have been haggling over which of the two administrations- National Democratic Congress or the New Patriotic Party - was or is endemic with cocaine related activities. The NPP MPs insist by September 2008 Ghana had been declared a no-go-area for drug traffickers, a position the NDC MPs vehemently disagree and produced a litany of cocaine related activities under the Kufuor regime to buttress their case. The MPs were debating President John Mills’ State of the Nation’s Address on Thursday, a portion of which the president vowed to re-open investigations into the infamous MV-Benjamin cocaine case in which 77 parcels of cocaine went missing on Ghanaian waters. The president also ordered a reopening of investigations into circumstances under which cocaine exhibits which were kept at the Police HQ as evidence for prosecution was replaced with a whitish substance in 2007. Joy FM’s Parliamentary Correspondent Sammy Darko reports that the ensuing narcotic debate on the Floor is interesting. Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Joe Ghartey stated on the floor of Parliament he had no problems with the president wanting to unravel the mystery behind those two cocaine scandals but implored the president to be interested in recent cocaine cases as well as a report from whistle blower website-wikileaks in which the president was quoted to have remarked to a US ambassador that some of his appointees are being compromised by cocaine barons. Ghartey produced a September 2008 Ghanaian Times report with a headline 'Ghana no longer a hub for drug dealers'. That he said was as a result of the political will demonstrated by ex-president John Kufuor in putting in place stringent laws to fight the drug menace and making drug offence a non-bailable offence. MP for Bimbilla Dominic Nitiwul in buttressing the arguments by his colleague charged the president to back his commitment to fight the cocaine menace with deeds rather than words. He made references to the Rawlings-led regime in which he cited 300 cocaine cases which he said were not dealt with in which the sitting president was then the vice–president. But the Communications Minister Haruna Iddrisu debunked the assertions by Joe Ghartey. Contrary to assertions that Ghana was no longer a cocaine hub, the minister noted that of 19 suspected drug dealers who were recommended for prosecution by a ministerial committee under President Kufuor only 9 were finally prosecuted. Another NDC MP described the MV Benjamin case as the biggest drug scandal ever to have hit the country and commended the president for reopening investigations into it. The debate on the president's State of the Nation's address continues tomorrow. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyoyonline.com/Ghana