STATEMENT: Per NDC�s Standards, Mahama�s Gov�t Is Complicit In Nayele�s Cocaine Saga � NPP

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of being complicit in the Nayele Ametefe cocaine scandal as per the ruling party's own rod of measurement. The opposition party is questioning the presence of a �Ghana High Commission diplomatic car on the tarmac at the Heathrow Airport� at the time when the cocaine lady was busted by the British Border Agency on the flight. The NPP also wants to know what steps the Mahama-led government intends taking to ascertain the veracity of claims by Nayele�s counsel, James Scoobie in court, that powerful personalities in government supported his client. Nayele Ametefe was arrested at the Heathrow Airport late last year for attempting to smuggle a class �A� drug into the UK. She pleaded guilty to charges leveled against her and the Ghanaian � Austrian woman was on Tuesday sentenced to 8 years and 8 months in prison by the Isleworth Crown Court in Middlesex, London in the United Kingdom. Before pronouncing judgment, the presiding judge, Judge Edmonds, QC, observed that the crime warranted 13 years of sentence but he was considering all the mitigating factors the defense counsel put in and that the 8 years 8 months was enough by way of leniency. In a statement issued today in Accra and signed by the party�s Director of Communications, Nana Akomea, the NPP said the government of the day cannot absolve itself from culpability in the Rubygate Cocaine saga. Alluding to the 2007 MV Benjamin Cocaine scandal, the NPP said just as �the then NDC in opposition blamed the lapses of NACOB on the government of the day� and �pooh-poohed as cosmetic and insincere� actions by the NPP government to get to the bottom of the matter, so also �by the same standard, the massive lapses, omissions and commissions in the Nayele Ametefe scandal, at the very least, by the NDC�s own standard in opposition�, the Mahama-led government is complicit. ��in the MV Benjamin Cocaine case in April, 2007, the then NDC in opposition blamed the lapses of NACOB on the government of the day. Subsequent actions of the government of the day, such as a setting up of a Ministerial committee to investigate, the successful prosecution of seven people, etc, were all pooh-poohed by the NDC in opposition, as cosmetic and insincere�By the same standard, the massive lapses, omissions and commissions in the Nayele Ametefe scandal, at the very least, by the NDC�s own standard in opposition, makes President Mahama�s NDC government complicit in this Nayele Ametefe cocaine scandal,� Nana Akomea charged. Read the full statement below�. Nayele Amatefe was yesterday sentenced to eight years, eight months in a London Court. The testimony by her lawyer included the statement that Nayele was aided by powerful people back home in Ghana. This revelation raises pertinent questions. 1. How was Mrs. Ametefe able to access the VVIP/Presidential transit lounge at the Kotoka International Airport? 2. How was she able to carry over 12kg of Cocaine in her hand luggage through the VVIP/Presidential transit lounge? 3. What gave her the confidence that she could carry that amount of cocaine in her hand luggage through Heathrow airport as she had done at the Kotoka International Airport? 4. Why was she arrested by the British Border Agency on the aircraft and not allowed to disembark? Did the British Border control suspect that she was not going to pass through the airport? 5. Is it mere coincidence that there was a Ghana High Commission diplomatic car on the tarmac to pick someone? 6. Why the seemingly confusion in government over bits of the story: NACOB, a government agency asserted that it was in the know about the arrest, only to be flatly debunked by the British authorities; The Attorney General charge sheet alluding to her transit through the VVIP/Presidential lounge, only to be reaffirmed that she indeed travelled through the VVIP/Presidential transit lounge. 7. Why have persons who government has charged with abetment of Nayele Ametefe cocaine saga been admitted to bail in Ghana? 8. What steps would Ghana government take to ascertain the so called powerful personalities in Ghana who were alluded in court to have supported Nayele Ametefe? Recently in the MV Benjamin Cocaine case in April, 2007, the then NDC in opposition blamed the lapses of NACOB on the government of the day. Subsequent actions of the government of the day, such as a setting up of a Ministerial committee to investigate, the successful prosecution of seven people, etc, were all pooh-poohed by the NDC in opposition, as cosmetic and insincere. The NDC in opposition concluded that the government at that time was complicit in the MV Benjamin case and other cases. By the same standard, the massive lapses, omissions and commissions in the Nayele Ametefe scandal, at the very least, by the NDC�s own standard in opposition, makes President Mahama�s NDC government complicit in this Nayele Ametefe cocaine scandal. Ghanaians await further developments. �Signed� Nana Akomea (Director of Communications)