Alhaji Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka, the Minister of the Interior, says Ghana, in the interim, is using sniffer dogs to detect suspected narcotic substances at the airport and other key entry points due to broken down body and baggage scanners.
The Ministry, he said, had made dedicated budgetary provision to procure new modern and sophisticated body and baggage scanners, instead of repairing the broken-down ones.
He explained the decision to acquire new body and baggage scanners, he explained, was because of cost benefit analysis conducted by the Ministry and technical challenges encountered in repairing the broken-down scanners at the airport.
The Interior Minister made this known on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday when responding to an urgent question posed by John Ntim Fordjour, the Member of Parliament for Assin South on measures the Ministry was undertaking to repair dysfunctional body and baggage scanners at the country’s airport and key entry points.
The Minister further stated that the plan to procure advanced scanners was because, they were embedded with sophisticated technology that could make the detection of narcotic drugs more effective and efficient.
A detective or sniffer dog is a dog that is trained to use its senses to detect substances such as explosives, illegal drugs, wildlife scat, semen and currency.
Alhaji Muntaka stated that anytime the sniffer dogs detect suspected illegal drugs or substances, the authorities send them to be certified laboratories for testing to ascertain their veracity.
The Minister stated that the Ministry was sourcing local and international donor support to aid in procuring more scanners.
He noted that body and baggage scanners were essential tools in frontline operations of the National Narcotic Controls Commission and would fast-track efforts to procure them in earnest.
Security experts say the absence of detective scanners at the country’s airport and other entry points could pose a serious security risk as Ghana could be used as a transit point for illegal drugs, gold smuggling and other illicit trade.
Source: GNA
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