U.S authority holds Ghana's airport in high esteem – Gbevlo Lartey asserts

National Security Co-ordinator, Col. Gbevlo Lartey has debunked claims that the security at the Kotoka International Airport has been compromised, paving way for drug barons to ply their trade there.
Contrary to the claims, Col. Gbevlo Lartey has told Joy News the country’s sole international airport has rather received praise from the international community on how it manages its security.
“The U.S authority holds our airport here in high esteem,” he said relying on a report by Bloomberg website.
“That website when you go there, you will see what they have written there, about the drastic drop in cocaine that is passing through the airport comparing 2007 figures to even 2009 figures…the amount of drug trafficking through West Africa to South Africa and beyond has been declining heavily to about 21 tonnes in 2009 from a peak of 47 tonnes in 2007; this is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.”
The National Security Co-ordinator has also rejected call for a total overhaul of security at the airport. He indicated that persons claiming security at the airport is porous lack “a clear understanding of how things work out” there.
“This business is a serious business, not a joke” as portrayed by the media and some politicians, he remarked.
Touching on the recent arrest of the owner of airport security management company Sohin Security, Solomon Adelaquaye and his accomplices, he said that was made possible by the active collaboration of Ghana’s security outfits and their counterparts in the US.
According to him, the barons were able to bribe their way through the airport because that was “how it was planned” in order to get them busted.
“When the DEA (Drugs Enforcement Administration) was here working, we were with them, the people who work with them are Ghanaians, and these things are all operations we started from beginning to the end. So it has nothing to do with porosity of security at the airport. These operations are operations that we ourselves have organized to get the people to get into the US and be arrested. It is not like DEA came here and did some operations and NACOB was not aware,” Gbevlo Lartey protested.
Meanwhile, the National Security Co-ordinator has denied any association with the embattled Solomon Adelaquaye.
He also placed on record that the man was not the head of security at the airport as "perceived" by the media. He said Mr Adelaquaye’s company was only responsible for security at “peripheral places” such as the car park, and that the security at the main terminal would not be given to a private security to handle.
He has therefore cautioned the media not to confuse the public by tagging the man as the head of security at the airport, something he described as “funny" the way the media is handling it.

Source: Ghana [myjoyonline.com]