WE ARE DEPENDING ON SNIFFER DOGS TO DETECT NARCOTICS AT AIRPORTS DUE TO BROKEN-DOWN SCANNERS — Minister

The Narcotics Control Commission (NCC) is currently depending on sniffer dogs at the Kotoka International Airport and other ports across the country to detect narcotic substances being smuggled out, the Minister of the Interior has told Parliament.

Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka told the House that the use of sniffer dogs had become necessary due to broken-down narcotic detection scanners at the airports.

He explained that the dogs were being used in the interim to detect suspected narcotics substances as the government was following procurement processes to procure new detection scanners.

“Each time we see substance that looks like drug, we try to get it to laboratories to test for confirmation or otherwise,” he said.

Responding to questions on the floor of Parliament today, Mr Muntaka said “So yes, I know that having the scanner, therefore, would have been an excellent one but because of this challenge, and having to go through the procurement process which is delaying, we are currently using sniffer dogs to enhance the tracking and what we call it search for possible drugs at the airports.

“I can assure my colleagues that as soon as funds are available, we will make sure that we procure narcotic detection scanners because it is so important not just for only for narcotic cases but for all other cases like people who are smuggling gold and other things that are not supposed to be smuggled,” he said.

The minister disclosed this when the Member of Parliament for Assin South, John Ntim Fordjour, expressed worry over how, given the broken-down scanners at the ports, narcotic substances could easily transit Ghana’ ports and impose a significant risk to collective fight to ensuring zero tolerance to narcotics.

He, therefore, asked when could the ports be installed with effective and running standards to ensure our ports do not become transit points for narcotics.

NKONKONSA.com