German CID supports NACOB

PAGE 49: April 10, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia

THE chairman of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Gen Joshua Hamidu (retd), has called on Ghana’s development partners to help the country in its efforts to erase the negative perception that Ghana is a transit point in the drug trade.
“We hate being tagged as a drug transit point,” he said, adding that “we are working hard to eliminate that tag”.
Gen Hamidu made the appeal when he received six telefax machines from the German Criminal Investigations Department (CID) as part of a technical assistance to help NACOB fight drug trafficking.
He said Ghana was doing its best to minimise the narcotics business and noted that the development partners were helping in a tremendous way.
He said the timeliness of information in the fight against drug trafficking was necessary if law enforcement agencies were to succeed.
Gen Hamidu said he was particularly happy with the German support because they did not just provide equipment but were supporting in the training of NACOB officers as well.
According to him the provision of the equipment, without the requisite training of the personnel to operate them would amount to nothing.
The German Ambassador to Ghana, Dr Marius Haas, who presented the machines on behalf of the German CID, said the donation was another important step towards an increased and continued co-operation between Ghana and Germany in the field of anti-narcotics and criminal investigations.
He said donation of the telefax machines was aimed at supporting the decentralisation process of NACOB which included the opening of additional offices in major cities and at some focal points of anti-narcotics activities in the country.
“The telephone-fax machines will help to ensure the prompt communication between field offices and NACOB National headquarters, thus strengthening the effectiveness of the whole network,” he said.
Dr Haas explained that the German assistance did not only consist of the provision of hardware but comprised training courses too.
He said a NACOB enforcement and control officer was currently undergoing a six-month language and anti-narcotics training course in Germany while 25 Ghanaian anti-narcotics investigators were to benefit from a crime suppression course in July, this year, in Accra.
“Two additional training courses titled “Operational Analysis” and “Police Operation Tactics and Methods” for both the Ghana Police Service and NACOB officers and investigators will take place in Accra at the end of 2008 or early 2009,” he added.
Dr Haas expressed the hope that the co-operation might bring success in the fight against international drug trafficking and the investment of the resulting illicit proceeds.