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NDC granted permit for importation of guns before leaving office – Gov’t

The erstwhile John Mahama administration gave permit to an importer to import a large cache of arms into the country, the Akufo-Addo government has said.

NDC granted permit for importation of guns before leaving office – Gov’t

This was revealed by the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, on Thursday.

The Minister said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) approved the importation of guns before leaving office in January 2017.

According to him, the permit was signed by the NDC’s then Deputy Minister for Interior, James Agalga on 5thJanuary 2017.

He revealed that the Mahama administration granted the importer permission to import 20,000 cases of 500 pieces of shotgun cartridges, 4,000 pieces of hunting shotguns and 500 boxes of percussion caps.

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The permit, Mr. Nkrumah said, was granted on the blind side of everyone.

“It is curious that after the election of 2016, two days to the handing over on the 5th of January [2017] at a time of the transition, this permit was issued on the blind side of everyone,” he disclosed.

The Minister’s statement was in reaction to the NDC’s stance against the recent importation of a large cache of arms into the country.

Officials of Customs at the Tema Port last Thursday detained a container carrying firearms.

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The officers from Customs, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and Port Security provided protection for the container overnight when it was detained.

Reports on social media suggested the container had a load sophisticated guns including AK 47 assault rifles, but this was later refuted by the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

Clarifying further, Mr. Nkrumah said the consignment was duly inspected in accordance with standard practice.

He added: “The state security agencies are ensuring that the consignment does not get into the hands of unauthorised persons.”

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