NACOB rejected intercepted Afloa cocaine -GRA fires back

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has said the Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), previously a Board, rejected the intercepted exhibits suspected to be cocaine when it tried to hand it over to them because the said exhibits were incomplete.
The two state agencies have been at each other’s throats since substances purported to be narcotics and an amount of $200,000 were seized at the Aflao Border.
The exhibits have since been kept in the custody of the Customs Division of the GRA, of which all other security agencies, including the Bureau of National Investigations, are in the know.
NACOC should have been given the custody of the exhibits to commence testing and investigations, especially when it was its officer whose vigilance and show of bravado led to the interception of the goods from the Nigeria-registered vehicle.
The Chronicle carried a story on Tuesday, this week in which NACOC threatened to use legal means to compel the Customs Division of the GRA to hand over the items seized for investigations to begin.
However, a statement issued by the GRA accused NACOC of refusing to take delivery of the exhibits, a claim which is begging the question as to why the latter would request for the same things it refused to take delivery of.
According to the statement, NACOC refused to take delivery of the exhibits because the vehicle in which the items were intercepted was not part of the items.
Meanwhile, the GRA explained that the vehicle, while on its way to Accra developed fault at Dawa and could not be moved until it was towed the next day.
Signed by the Assistant Commissioner, Communication and Public Affairs, Mrs. Florence Asante, for the Commissioner, Customs Division, the statement indicated that “when NACOB officials refused to take delivery of the exhibits, the Commissioner, Customs Division, then directed that the exhibits should be handed over to the Police Forensic Laboratory for the necessary testing, and the cash amounting to US$200,000 was deposited at the Bank of Ghana.”
The Chronicle’s checks at the NACOC collaborated the claims by the GRA that the former, indeed, rejected the exhibits, but made its position loudly clear to Customs.
Meanwhile, efforts to penetrate the highest offices of NACOC for an official response to the claim by the GRA did not yield entirely positive results.
What this paper gathered, however, was that the top management of both state agencies have decided to sit at the table to resolve the issue and continue their collaborative efforts to work in the interest of the nation.
This information, whispered into the ears of this paper, comes at a time when the GRA had also stated in its release that Customs wishes not to engage “in what could be perceived as a media war with fellow government agencies with whom it regularly works closely, especially when investigations are ongoing.”
Customs says it remains steadfast in carrying out its preventive functions at all the country’s borders, and will not, under any circumstance, compromise on its mandate.
“We continue to cooperate with all state agencies, especially in joint border patrols, in the common interest of good governance, including working with all other partner organisations and stakeholders to ensure the security and development of Ghana,” the statement ended.

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