BY Daniel Bampoe
Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has recalled Parliament from recess for an extraordinary sitting on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, following a formal request by Minority MPs for parliamentary scrutiny of a series of major narcotics seizures linked to consignments originating from Ghana.
The sitting, which is scheduled to begin at 12 noon at Parliament House in Accra, follows a memorandum submitted to the Speaker on September 18 by the First Deputy Minority Whip and Tolon MP, Habib Iddrisu, on behalf of a group of MPs.
In his notice dated September 24, 2026, Speaker Bagbin invoked Article 112(3) of the 1992 Constitution and Order 53 of the Standing Orders of Parliament, formally summoning lawmakers to return to the Chamber for the special sitting. The notice itself does not specify the detailed business for the sitting, but the recall follows the Minority’s petition over the narcotics seizures.
The recall follows a memorandum in which the Minority said it had obtained the constitutionally required support from at least 15 per cent of MPs to request an extraordinary meeting of Parliament.
Article 112(3), as cited in the memorandum, provides for such a request and states that the Speaker shall summon Parliament within seven days after receiving the request.
The MPs therefore asked Speaker Bagbin to reconvene the House to consider what they described as urgent matters of national importance.
At the centre of the petition is the seizure in France of approximately 3.9 tonnes of cocaine concealed in a container of plastic waste that had departed Ghana and was intercepted at the Port of Dunkirk.
The development has generated questions about the procedures through which the container was processed and cleared in Ghana before reaching Europe.
The Minority wants Parliament to establish the circumstances surrounding the shipment and determine whether weaknesses in the port, customs, intelligence and narcotics-control systems contributed to the movement of the consignment.
The Minority MPs are asking Parliament to undertake an inquiry into the institutional, regulatory and security issues arising from the cocaine seizure.
Among the questions they want answered is how the container was processed and exported from Ghana, which port or facility handled the consignment, and what inspection, scanning and clearance procedures were applied before it left the country.
They are also seeking information on the companies and institutions involved in processing and clearing the shipment, the progress of investigations and arrests, and the extent of cooperation between Ghanaian authorities and French and other international agencies.
The MPs further want Parliament to examine how Ghana identifies and tracks the financiers, organisers and networks behind major narcotics operations and whether existing surveillance and intelligence systems at ports, airports and other entry and exit points are adequate.
The Minority’s memorandum specifically identifies several institutions whose officials could be required to provide information to Parliament.
These include the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of National Security, Narcotics Control Commission (NACOC), Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Immigration Service and Bureau National Intelligence, among other security and regulatory bodies.
The focus of the proposed inquiry is therefore not limited to the French seizure itself. The MPs want the House to examine the broader systems governing Ghana’s ports, export processes, customs controls, intelligence gathering and narcotics enforcement.
The latest development also brings renewed attention to the Pedu Junction cocaine seizure of March 2025, one of the largest drug seizures recorded in Ghana in recent years.
According to the Minority’s memorandum, the Bureau National Intelligence intercepted more than 3.3 tonnes of cocaine on March 4, 2025, concealed beneath sand in a tipper truck at Pedu Junction in Cape Coast. The MPs put the estimated street value of the shipment at more than US$350 million.
The Minority has questioned the progress of the case, particularly whether investigators have succeeded in identifying the alleged financiers and principal traffickers behind the shipment.
The memorandum states that more than a year after the interception, the persons arraigned included the driver, a housemaid and a small number of other suspects, while the MPs questioned the status of investigations into the alleged financiers and principal organisers.
These are assertions contained in the Minority’s submission and would be matters for Parliament or the relevant investigative and judicial authorities to establish.
The Minority has also linked the Dunkirk incident to a series of other narcotics-related cases.
The memorandum cites the interception of approximately 120 slabs of cocaine along the Takoradi-Cape Coast highway, which it estimates at about US$150 million.
It also cites the August 5, 2026 seizure of 866 parcels of suspected cocaine at a warehouse within the Tema Harbour enclave. The parcels were reportedly concealed in sacks of gari and were estimated in the memorandum at approximately US$6.9 million.
Another case highlighted is the seizure by Australian authorities in June 2026 of approximately 320 kilogrammes of methamphetamine concealed in a charcoal consignment traced to Ghana.
The memorandum says the drugs were valued at about US$261 million.
The Minority says the accumulation of these cases makes it necessary for Parliament to examine whether there are systemic weaknesses that may be exploited by international narcotics trafficking networks.
The decision to recall Parliament comes after differing views over whether the full House needed to return from recess.
The Minority argued that the scale and international dimensions of the seizures warranted an extraordinary parliamentary sitting and an independent inquiry. First Deputy Minority Whip Habib Iddrisu said the Executive’s investigations should not prevent Parliament from exercising its constitutional oversight responsibilities.
However, Wa West MP and Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, Peter Lanchene Toobu, previously questioned the necessity of recalling the entire House.
He argued that existing parliamentary committees, including the Defence and Interior, Transport, and Trade and Industry committees, already have oversight responsibilities relevant to the matter and could investigate while Parliament remains on recess.
