Cocaine Deals: Bagbin Rejects Probe Motion

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has dismissed a motion by the Minority caucus seeking the establishment of a bipartisan Ad Hoc Committee to investigate recent major narcotics seizures linked to Ghana, ruling that the proposed inquiry would prejudice ongoing judicial proceedings.

Minutes after the motion was dismissed, the Minority expressed disappointment describing Alban Bagbin’s decision as a blow to parliamentary oversight and Ghana’s democratic credentials.

“Today is a sad day for our democracy and parliamentary oversight. The majority has once again used its supermajority, with the support of the Speaker, to weaken Parliament,” Minority Leader, Osahen Alexander Afenyo-Markin told a team of journalists.

The motion, filed by the First Deputy Minority Whip and Member of Parliament for Tolon, Habib Iddrisu, sought to probe how consignments of cocaine and methamphetamine were processed, inspected, cleared and exported from Ghana.

Ruling on the motion during Parliament’s emergency sitting on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, Alban Bagbin held that there was substantial factual overlap between the proposed parliamentary inquiry and matters currently before the courts.

The Speaker said the investigation could require Parliament to examine evidence, witnesses, conduct and questions of responsibility that are properly within the remit of a court of competent jurisdiction.

“The proposed parliamentary enquiry will traverse factual matters directly connected with matters presently engaging the criminal justice process,” Speaker Bagbin noted.

The Speaker explained that allowing the committee to proceed would compel Parliament to examine how the narcotics transactions were conducted and to determine the actions or inactions of various actors at Ghana’s ports of entry.

“The combined effect of undertaking this evaluation, assessment, and investigation would be, at the end of the day, to determine the very issues that the Court of Competent Jurisdiction is supposed to determine,” the Speaker said.

Speaker Bagbin further warned that proceeding with the motion in its current form could prejudice the interests of parties involved in the pending judicial proceedings.

“Accordingly, I am of the considered opinion that permitting the motion to proceed in its present form as presented by a Leader of the House at this particular time may prejudice the interests of parties to pending judicial proceedings,” he ruled.

He consequently declared the private members’ motion inadmissible, citing Standing Orders 5, 6, 103, Sub-Rule F, as well as Orders 192 and 233.

“I therefore rule, pursuant to Standing Orders 5, 6, and 103, Sub-Rule F, that the private member’s motion is inadmissible,” Mr Bagbin declared, dismissing the motion in limine.

Minority Reacts

Reacting to the ruling at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, noted: “Clearly, the NDC government is afraid of its own failures. This ruling by Mr Speaker has failed the integrity test required of Parliament to discharge its duty,” Osahen Afenyo-Markin added.

The Minority Leader’s remarks underscored the caucus’s position that Parliament, as the people’s representative, has a duty to probe matters of national security concern, particularly when they touch on the integrity of the country’s ports and border controls.

The ruling brings to an end, for now, the Minority’s push for a legislative inquiry into the narcotics consignments, though the matter is expected to remain a subject of intense political debate in the coming days.

Motion’s Scope

The motion cited the seizure of 3.9 metric tonnes of cocaine by French Customs at Dunkirk on September 10, 2026, valued at $261 million, as well as the seizure of 320 kilogrammes of methamphetamine by the Australian Border Force on June 18, 2026. It also referenced earlier cocaine interceptions in Takoradi and Pedu in Cape Coast in March 2025.

The proposed committee was to investigate the circumstances under which the consignments were processed and cleared in Ghana, including the ports from which they departed, and the intelligence profiling, scanning, physical inspection and customs procedures applied.

It also sought to establish the identities and roles of companies, state agencies and other entities involved in processing and clearing the consignments, subject to legitimate restrictions arising from ongoing criminal investigations.

Additionally, the inquiry would have examined the adequacy of Ghana’s security systems at its ports, airports and other entry and exit points, including scanning, surveillance and intelligence capabilities, as well as the status of investigations, arrests and prosecutions connected to the seizures.