Former Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi Andrew Egyapa Mercer has urged Parliament to open a bipartisan inquiry into all cocaine seizures connected to Ghana since January 2025, saying the circumstances surrounding the interceptions must be thoroughly examined.
He wants the proposed investigation to hold public hearings and establish how the consignments were able to leave Ghana, as questions persist over the accounts given by Ghanaian and Lebanese authorities following the latest seizure in Beirut.
Mr Mercer has also asked the government to release, within seven days, the roadmap of its anti-drug trafficking task force, which was expected to be made public on October 1.
He is further demanding a joint statement from President John Dramani Mahama and Lebanese authorities, including the country’s internal security forces, to clarify whether the Beirut operation was conducted as a Ghana-led controlled delivery and when Ghanaian security agencies were first informed.
The demands follow the arrest of a Syrian passenger at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut after 46.7 kilogrammes of cocaine were reportedly discovered in his luggage.
Lebanese Customs has described the interception as the largest drug seizure in the airport’s history.
In an interview with Citi FM on Wednesday, November 4, Mr Mercer questioned the account provided by Ghana’s Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), arguing that it did not appear to match the version attributed to Lebanese authorities.
“Our demands are really simple. He should constitute a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry and hold public hearings into every Ghana-linked cocaine seizure recorded since January 2025, from Amsterdam to Beirut. We are also calling on him to publish the task force roadmap, which was due on October 1, within seven days,” he said.
He also raised concerns about the absence of announced arrests in Ghana several days after the Beirut interception, despite reports that NACOC had tracked the suspect’s movements while he was in the country.
Mr Mercer argued that if Ghanaian agencies had been involved in a controlled delivery, they should be able to identify those the suspect interacted with locally.
“If you listen to the narrative from the Lebanese authorities and you relate it to what NACOC is telling us, clearly there’s a disconnect,” he said, adding: “Clearly, clearly we are being gaslighted.”