By Efam Dovi
Accra
30 September 2006

In Ghana, a senior police officer and 17 others are being prosecuted for their involvement in a major cocaine drug scandal that has engulfed the West African nation.

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		Ghana

The committee was also asked to look into allegations of bribery and corruption by senior police officers.

The investigations failed to locate the whereabouts of the 76 parcels of cocaine, each weighing 30 kilograms, but found that the drugs were offloaded in Ghana.

The committee also raised questions about the integrity of the country's police chief, PK Acheampong, but did not indict him.

Outlining the governments position on the report submitted to it last week, Interior Minister Albert Kan-Dapaah, called the conduct of the police chief unacceptable.

According to the committee, at a meeting with four suspected drug barons, secretly recorded, the former director general of operations, Kofi Boakye, a senior police official confessed to gross abuse of office.

Kan-Dapaah says the government agrees with the committees recommendations that Boakye should be prosecuted.

"The committee found substantial evidence showing that instead of protecting the national interest and fighting crime, ACP Kofi Boakye and four others sought to promote their own agenda, for financial reward," he said.

The government also said it is considering action against two former officials of the country's narcotics control board.

The committee also recommended that a high powered national task force be set up to look into ways to combat the illegal the drug trade.