Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the Minority Leader, has rejected the Speaker Bagbin’s decision to dismiss the Minority’s motion for a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into major narcotics seizures linked to Ghana.
The Minority Leader argued that Speaker Alban Bagbin erred in relying on ongoing criminal proceedings to determine the scope of Parliament’s proposed inquiry.
According to Afenyo-Markin, the existence of cases before the courts should not prevent Parliament from examining broader institutional and systemic issues.
The Minority comment follows Speaker Bagbin’s ruling on Tuesday, September 29, who higlighted that the minority motion was inadmissible because the proposed inquiry substantially overlapped with matters currently before the courts and could prejudice pending judicial proceedings.
Speaking to the media, Afenyo-Markin stated, “Mr Speaker, therefore, got it wrong by using existing pending criminal proceedings to determine the scope and manner of the inquiry”.
The Minority argued that Parliament’s oversight responsibilities should not be weakened by pending cases, stressing that the proposed inquiry was intended to examine public institutions and systems and not the work of the courts.
He added, “The image of our country is on trial”.
“We, the minority, we’ll proceed on this path because democracy requires a strong Parliament. A strong Parliament requires an effective minority. A super-majority must never become an excuse to weaken the minority, silence scrutiny, or diminish Parliament’s duty to oversight.”
“When Parliament is weakened, our accountability is weakened, and the institutions of state are left with fewer checks on the exercise of power,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ghana has been ranked the fifth-largest country of origin for cocaine seized at the port of Antwerp in Belgium in 2025.
According to Belgian customs figures, Ghana was the only African country on a list which made up of Latin American producers and transit states.
Reports by JoyNews Research detailed that “Belgian customs seized nearly 55 tonnes of cocaine at Antwerp last year, 24 per cent more than the 44 tonnes seized in 2024. Belgium’s Finance Minister, Jan Jambon, presented the figures on 21 January 2026. Ecuador, Costa Rica, Brazil and Colombia made up the rest of the top five, according to the breakdown reported by VRT, Belgium’s public broadcaster. VRT described Ghana as “de vreemde eend in de bijt”, the odd one out”.
“Antwerp is the main entry point for cocaine into Europe, and Belgian customs describe Belgium as the continent’s most important destination for cocaine shipped by sea. In customs figures, “country of origin” means the country where a container was loaded and shipped from, not where the drug was produced. None of the cocaine is grown in Ghana. It comes from the Andes and is hidden in legitimate Ghanaian exports.
Ghana’s ranking reflects a run of large seizures at Antwerp on cargo from Tema. In late November 2025, Belgian authorities found 2,829 kilogrammes of cocaine concealed in cassava flour shipped from Tema. In December, a further 1,158 kilogrammes of suspected cocaine were found in a shipment from Ghana. Together the two seizures come to about 4 tonnes, roughly 7 per cent of all the cocaine seized at the port in 2025.
Ghana’s appearance on the list is new. A major 2022 analysis of Europe’s cocaine market by the European Union’s drugs agency and Europol named Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Benin, Sierra Leone and The Gambia as West African countries linked to large seizures. It did not mention Ghana
The Belgian figures are part of a wider pattern of seizures abroad traced to Ghanaian ports”, the JoyNews report detailed.
@ghnow_ Family members of the late Ivan Baidoo have reportedly rained curses on the police officer accused in connection with his death, as he appeared before the Adabraka District Court. #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ The mother of late law student Ivan Baidoo has called for justice, saying to the accused police officer: “You painfully killed my child. I want justice.” #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
