MV Sankofa mystery deepens as Minority demands answers over vessel’s release before drug arrest

The Minority in Parliament is demanding answers over the failure to identify and prosecute the alleged financiers and principal traffickers behind a US$350 million cocaine shipment seized at Pedu Junction in Cape Coast. The Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee, Rev. Ntim Fordjour, said more than a year after the seizure, only the driver, a housemaid and a small number of peripheral suspects have been arraigned and remain on bail.

He questioned why those allegedly behind the shipment have not been identified or punished. “In the Pedu Junction matter, more than a year after the seizure, it is only the driver, a housemaid, and a small handful of peripheral suspects who have been arraigned and remain on bail, while the actual financiers and high-profile dealers behind a US$350 million cocaine shipment remain unidentified and unpunished.” The National Intelligence Bureau intercepted the tipper truck on March 4, 2025, following a tip-off. The vehicle was carrying more than 3.3 tonnes of cocaine concealed beneath sand and was travelling from Takoradi to Accra.

A second consignment involving about 120 slabs of cocaine, valued at approximately US$150 million, was also intercepted along the Takoradi–Cape Coast highway. Fordjour said the development formed part of a wider pattern of major narcotics seizures linked to Ghana under the NDC government. On August 5, 2026, the Tema Regional Police Command seized 866 parcels of suspected cocaine concealed in sacks of gari at a warehouse within the Tema Harbour enclave.

The consignment was valued at US$6.9 million. He also cited foreign seizures linked to Ghana, including 320kg of methamphetamine valued at US$261 million seized by Australian customs authorities in June 2026. On September 10, 2026, Reuters reported that French customs officers at the port of Dunkirk seized nearly 3.9 metric tonnes of cocaine, valued at more than US$260 million, in a container of plastic waste that had departed Ghana.

Fordjour said major narcotics seizures linked to Ghana under the current administration now amount to more than US$1 billion in less than two years. He argued that the situation raises questions about how much narcotics could be moving through Ghana undetected. “International drug enforcement agencies have long estimated that only around one in every ten consignments of trafficked narcotics is ever interc…

The Minority in Parliament is demanding a full-scale independent parliamentary inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the release of the MV Sankofa before the vessel was later arrested in Senegal carrying narcotics. The demand has been made by the Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee, Rev. Ntim Fordjour, amid concerns over a series of major narcotics trafficking cases linked to Ghana.