As a journalist, I am trained to maintain vigilance and neutrality. However, it gets cleverly interesting when parties in a controversial matter keep throwing different sensational signals to sway the public’s attention.
Respectfully, it keeps getting confusing by the minute; the claims made by the Hon. Member of Parliament for Assin South – Rev. John Ntim Fordjour concerning a suspected drug trafficking and Money Laundering operation involving the arrival of an AirMed and a Cavok Air flights that landed at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) from Gran Canaria. In fact this story; has been a whirlwind of conflicting narratives, leaving even the most discerning observers unsettled. The claims, counterclaims, and political undertones have turned this into a convoluted tale. Here are my six contentions;
My First Confusion arose when without exhausting any local channels; the minority in parliament, petitioned the diplomatic Corps to intervene. Something I found quite puzzling. I could only understand this to the extent that the opposition would have their doubts about the corporation of the security services. Every opposition party cries about the same thing as if in Ghana; security services switch blood from green to blue and vise versa whenever there is a change of government.
However, this is a case that involves a particular country and a particular Airline with representatives in this country. The aviation Industry is a highly regulated space which does not joke with documentation of flight roots, persons and cargo on board each flight that lands or takes off from any tarmac. Why spread the search so wide away from the hottest spots to seek the most crisp information? The Diplomatic Corps????
Till date; I’ve been scratching my head wondering what realistically the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and Lebanese Ambassador to Ghana, Maher Kheir will be doing with the minority’s petition. What will he be telling the cohort of Ambassadors; Diplomats and High Commissioners should he convenes a meeting over this matter. Considering that ambassadors would most likely not bother themselves chasing matters their home country governments are not really interested in; I am at a loss which ambassadors will court the interest of their respective governments to look into this bleak direction.
My Second Confusion centers on the debate around the immunities of Rev. Ntim Fordjour. At one point he appears on the scene as conducting parliamentary oversight duties and in another realm he is painted as the whistle blower. At one point, the narrative is that Rev Ntim Fordjour MADE THE COMMENTS ON BEHALF OF THE MINORITY CAUCUS AS A RANKING MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF DEFENCE AND INTERIOR and same comments cannot be subject to any investigation directed at his person. They add that he made the position also in parliament invoking his immunity. On another score we are told he is a whistle blower. Conveniently, proponents make no effort at telling the public which of the entities in the whistle-blowers’ Act the MP is directing his allegations to. Rev. Fordjour takes off from there and takes the onslaught to the media space and continues to stoke suspicions to the extent that government was superintending a narcotic drug peddling and money laundering escapade at the country’s port of entry. Addressing the media within the premises of parliament; moving it to the media and impugning criminality on institutions and further projecting a very scandalous image of the government; still wearing the clothes of parliamentary immunity appears to me AN overstretching of this skintight immunity PPE. It will tear oooo!. 3b3 tete ooo.
My third confusion is the news conference held by the government spokesperson Felix Ofosu Kwakye; a presser he held with a posturing quite dissimilar to the composure demonstrated by the President John Dramani Mahama when the allegations went viral: Mr. Ofosu Kwakye comes up to provide information about flight paths that turn out to make the situation murkier. Even his pictures from the said inspection of the planes and the repair and maintenance works on them are being questioned. Ntim Fordjour comes again to muddy more waters contending the footages were staged.
In the midst of this spin, I got so excited when I realized The very respected and highly intellectual Kofi Bentle, honorary vice president of IMANI Ghana was going to finally bring some superior information to settle this dust, like he always does.
Sometimes I listen to him and truly wish I could rattle data analysis and adduce research facts like he does with very complex subject matters. God has really blessed him with brains. Now Kofi Bentle also breaks my heart. He beats retreat after describing some of the photos provided by the Government Spokesperson as found to be fake; attributing the claim to ‘sombody said’. See! We are all confused; Even Kofi Bentle is.
I only found little solace in Factcheck Ghana; In Factcheck Ghana’s conclusions; the flight paths presented by Felix Ofosu Kwakye concerning the AIRMED flights and their claim to have flown in from Luanda could not be substantiated. The flight paths of Cavok Air has been extremely difficult to locate on flight record checkers. Something also very unusual.
According to Factcheck Ghana; ““The claims about the times of arrival and departure of AirMed N823AM at the Kotoka International Airport are consistent with the open source data of the flight’s activity history. However, there’s no evidence to support Felix Ofosu Kwakye’s claim that AirMed N823AM went through Luanda, Angola, before coming to Ghana. Also, AirMed N864AM, which, according to the minister, was sent down to bring materials to service AirMed N823AM, did not only come to Ghana once. The flight landed at Kotoka International Airport on March 22 and returned on March 23 before leaving for Gran Canaria Island on March 24.”
My forth confusion: Another part that throws me off the pedal of comprehension is the reaction of Rev. Ntim Fordjour after the response offered by the governments spokesperson Felix Ofosu Kwarkye. Instead of focusing on the contrary evidence given about the content of the flight (assuming they were all lies); he attacks the minister for running away from disclosing the whereabouts of the reported cash and gold found concealed in a house at Sapeiman. Then he reigns in the issue about the flight path details which he insists the government spokesperson got wrong. They are valid concerns but it kind of throws you so many directions.
My fifth Confusion; On a day members of the NPP and I dare say the country was awaiting the disciplinary committee hearing of Sarah Adwoa Safo former MP for Dome Kwabenya who had raised very damning allegations against her own NPP and the Nana Akufo – Addo Administration under which she served; the party chose to rehearse and sing a chorus. The NPP’s General Secretary Justin Frimpong Kodua and other prominent executives including the party’s Communications Director Richard Ahiagba insisted bluntly on every media house that reached out to them that the party was not ready to discuss that matter.
They insisted the party was rather concentrating and focusing keenly on the allegations that some drug trafficking and money laundering was going on at the KIA as alleged by their member of parliament. They described the matters as germane, weightier and crucial. It looks like a bride groom showing off a cake and forgetting that their home was ants infested. Immediately the see the ants coming; they tell the crowd; ‘just look at the cake. The ants are not too important for now.’ Lol ‘we want you to just look only and solely at the cake!.’
This is where the contrast gets really confusing. I am watching the spirited resistance of the minority and the NPP executives against the arrest of Rev. Ntim Fordjour and one statement from the minority leader Alexander Aphenyo Markin completely shocks me. He says instead of state institutions focusing on very important issues including galamsey and unemployment; state institutions will choose to waste their time on trivial matters like coming to arrest Ntim Fordjour. I was asking myself ‘did he just describe what the party had abandoned Adwoa Safo’s issue to focus on, as ‘trivial’?
My sixth Confusion. I watch News File, on Joy FM where another fire is started by former Sekondi MP, Andrew Egyapa Mercer. He starts off questioning how an Air Ambulance would arrive in Ghana without a patient. Then he goes on to pour copiously over the lies about the flight activity history as communicated by Felix Ofosu Kwakye. When the host labours to draw him to the content of the plane which has become a matter of contention; he says the cargo is of no importance to the matter but the flight path. Really! I thought we were all concerned about the suspected narcotic drugs and foreign currencies that were purported to be on that plane. If it wasn’t; but the contention was rather about where a pilot was jumping one plane to and from; would anyone be so bothered?
I don’t wish to begin doing any legal analysis of the provisions of publishing malicious information whether on the part of government or Ntim Fordjour; or the arena for blowing a whistle; or the limits of diplomatic immunities accorded legislators. But I will be glad if the parties involved do not continue to spin us in circles around very basic and easily discernable issues. Shifting the goal post and frames only confuses the public and makes my work as a journalist confusing.
I guess the only person who clears a bit of the smokiness is Senyo Hosi. He asserts that everyone including the security services, the NPP; the Minority and even the man at the center of the allegations, Hon Member of Parliament for Assin South Rev. John Ntim Fordjour; knows that there was neither cocaine, foreign currency nor anything suspicious in those flights that landed in Ghana and the other airplanes that subsequently arrived to perform repairs and evacuation of cargo.
Thanks to a mail sent by my nosy colleague Joshua Kodjo Mensah to AirMed International, operators of medical transport flight N823AM, the U.S.-based air ambulance company has emphasized that the aircraft’s stop in Ghana was a routine technical layover—not part of any covert operation.
“On March 20, 2025, AirMed International aircraft N823AM departed the United States for a scheduled international patient transport. As part of the planned flight path, the aircraft made multiple stops for fuel, including a stop at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana,” the mail read.
Well that is neither NPP nor NDC owned so … Maybe let’s say they are genuinely denying any involvement in criminal activities. It is technically called ‘benefit of the doubt’.
The best grounded suspicion stands on a certain leg about the kind of historical baggage the Gran Canaria Island carries. I’ve also heard some ask why Ghana and none other. Another confusion. Why not Ghana. I understand our Aviation Cargo Village was the closest to have offered some certification to the cargo carried by the Cavok Air flight.
I hope the company that owns Cavok Air also responds. That will add up to the responses by the Narcotic Control Commission; the Ghana Airport Company Limited and the Felix Ofosu Kwakye responses that appears to carry the position of National Security. And NIB; they should stop wearing those cartoon masks and carrying guns to people’s homes and learn to write their own media statements.
Whether the compendium of reports will be enough and able to convince Rev. John Ntim Fordjour is a very tricky one. Eating a humble pie will be like pushing a crocodile down his throat. At least not after occupying the headlines all these weeks. The NDC and President John Dramani Mahama must surely know that leaving this saga open ended could be costly to the party. If a certain narrative from a watchman about ‘akonfem flying to Burkina Faso’ can become Bible; AirMed will easily feed the next campaign cannon against the NDC. It shall very likely feature in the NPP’s 2028 manifesto. Watch the space.
It almost appears like looking for more paragraphs for an essay being written to suit a maxim. Like when we were in JHS in narrative essays. ‘write a story that ends with the saying ‘NOT ALL THAT GLITTERS IS GOLD’. No matter what; the essay must end there. You have 250 words to go. Just write the story but just someway somehow, manage to land safe on the subject phrase or clause provided. That is where Kofi will end his essay; ‘the night was so cold but he realized that all that glitters is not gold’. Well that’s what you asked for. lol
That is Ghana; Light to the World.
By: Ivan Heathcote Fumador
