NACOB Boss Parries Flaks �Over Amoateng�s Invitation

The Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, has deflated accusations that NACOB is witch-hunting former Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North, Eric Amoateng. Crazy Sarpong, as the NACOB is fondly called told Myjoyonline.com, that the debriefing session is a normal routine every drug related ex-convict goes through and that the procedure for debriefing was not peculiar to Amoateng alone, adding that it was a general guideline that every deportee on drug-related offences is supposed to follow. "Why Amoateng should be treated differently?" he quizzed. He lashed out at critics whom he said have decided to make political gains out of the situation, saying NACOB will carry out its duties without fear or favour. Minutes after the former Member of Parliament (MP) from the Nkoranza North touch down on Ghanaian soil, 2:40pm, after serving a 10-year jail term in US prison for drug-related offence, he was whisked away by NACOB officials for what they described as debriefing. Hundreds of supporters, mainly from Nkoranza North who had thronged the arrival area of the airport to welcome their former MP were disappointed when police and NACOB officials whisked him away. The disappointed supporters started accusing officials of NACOB of witch-hunting, accusation officials of NACOB have vehemently denied. Whilst the debriefing was going on, sources say personnel from the police service were also lurking, waiting to arrest the former MP, for allegedly securing a travel passport through fraudulent means. This paper gathered that after the debriefing, he would be handed over to the police to answered questions on the alleged fraudulent passport. Eric Amoateng was arrested on December 11, 2005, for illegal possessing of 136 pounds of heroin in the United States which street value was about $6 million. The MP was then sentenced to a 10-year jail term by a US court presided over by Judge David G. Tragger on December 12, 2007