Parliament adjourned after Speaker rejects Minority's drug seizures inquiry motion, Citi Newsroom reports

Pinned summary · as of 05:04

Parliament was summoned back from recess to sit at noon on Tuesday, 29 September, after Minority MPs asked for a parliamentary look at narcotics consignments tied to Ghana. Speaker Alban Bagbin's notice did not say what business the House would take up. Citi Newsroom reports that on the day he declared the Minority's motion inadmissible and adjourned the House until further notice, an account MyJoyOnline repeats.

What we know

• Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin signed a notice dated Thursday, 24 September calling MPs to Parliament House in Accra at 12 noon on Tuesday, 29 September, and cited the Constitution's Article 112(3) together with Order 53 of the House rules.
• The notice named no business for the sitting.
• The recall followed a Minority petition, led by Habib Iddrisu, MP for Tolon and First Deputy Minority Whip, that asked for urgent scrutiny of major drug seizures linked to Ghana. The Minority said it had gathered backing above the 15 per cent of MPs that Article 112(3) demands.
• Article 112(3) allows 15 per cent of MPs to ask for the House to meet and obliges the Speaker to summon it within seven days of such a request.
• The petition centres on French authorities' interception at Dunkirk port of nearly 3.9 tonnes of cocaine that was concealed in plastic-waste cargo shipped from Ghana; its worth is put above US$260 million.
• The Minority also pointed to earlier cases: a Cape Coast (Pedu Junction) find of over 3.3 tonnes of cocaine in March 2025, roughly 120 slabs reportedly caught on the Takoradi-Cape Coast road, 866 parcels of suspected cocaine in gari sacks at a Tema Harbour warehouse in August 2026, and 320 kilogrammes of methamphetamine that Australia seized in June 2026 from a charcoal shipment traced to Ghana.
• The Minority wants the Interior, Transport and National Security ministries, together with agencies such as NACOC, the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority and the Ghana Revenue Authority, to explain to the House how port scanning, surveillance and intelligence work failed to stop such cargo.
• The Minority said its request was made in good faith, was not meant to judge any individual, and should not interfere with criminal investigations that are under way.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Citi Newsroom reports that Mr Bagbin ruled the Minority's private member's motion, which sought an ad hoc committee, inadmissible under the Standing Orders and then adjourned the House until further notice. MyJoyOnline carries the same account, but it is a republished report, and the ruling has not yet been corroborated by other original reporting.
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  As reported, the Speaker's reasons were that the proposed inquiry overlapped substantially with criminal cases already before the courts and could harm the parties in them. He is quoted as saying the motion "may prejudice the interests of parties to pending judicial proceedings".
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  The Vaultz News, quoting the Minority's petition, gave values of over US$350 million for the Pedu Junction cocaine, roughly US$150 million for the highway slabs and about US$261 million for the Australian methamphetamine, and said seizures linked to Ghana top US$1 billion in under two years. No other report has given these figures.
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  Graphic Online gave the Dunkirk cocaine's worth as roughly €225 million, which it converted to about US$260 million, while Rainbow Radio Online and The Vaultz News say it exceeded US$260 million; the figures come from the Minority's account and differ in wording.
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  The Vaultz News says the Minority also cited an aircraft said to have carried drugs and undeclared US currency from Gran Canaria to Kotoka International Airport around 20 March 2025, and the vessel MV Sankofa, which the Minority says the Ghana Maritime Authority freed after part-payment of a fine close to GH₵12 million before Senegal arrested it with narcotics. It adds the Minority's claim that few people beyond the driver have faced court over the Pedu Junction find, while financiers remain unidentified. These are allegations that no other report has carried.
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  Opemsuo 104.7 and Onua Online say Parliament had earlier been called back for a sitting from 24 to 28 August 2026; Onua Online repeats other reports, so no other original report has carried this.
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  Graphic Online cites Dr Joshua Ebuntie Zaato of the University of Ghana as saying oversight by Parliament could give another way to examine the seizures, and Wa West MP Peter Lanchene Toobu as saying committees could take up the matter during recess. These are individual views that no other report has carried.

Why it matters for Ghana

Concerns about drugs passing through Ghanaian ports and roads bear on the country's trade reputation, on the businesses that depend on smooth clearance at Tema, and on the credibility of border and customs agencies. If the Speaker's ruling stands as reported, there is no parliamentary committee examining how the consignments left the country, and the courts remain the main route for answers. The Minority's questions about scanning, surveillance and intelligence at ports and airports are still unanswered in the reports available.