The NIP represents the national foundation for an effective regional response to the threat posed by orgnised crime and inefficiencies in the criminal justice system.
Its objective includes placing the fight against drug trafficking and organised crime within the context of an overall national development strategy.
Addressing participants at the workshop, the Minister for the Interior, Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor, said Ghana needs to tackle external threats and internal inefficiencies in the area of law and administrative justice in combating drugs and crime.
He explained that, the external threat to the country is mostly related to the various trans-national trafficking flows such as cocaine, human beings, counterfeit medicines, cocoa, undocumented migrants and sex workers.
Dr. Kunbuor noted that criminals are exploiting the poor conditions and fragile state of most African countries to recruit foot soldiers from a large pool of desperate youth into criminal activities.
The sector Minister disclosed that the Ministry together with the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, (UNODC), within the framework of the ECOWAS Action Plan organised a high level conference on drugs and crime in 2009 which sensitised stakeholders and key law enforcement personnel on the threat to stability and security due to the establishment of powerful organised crime networks.
The high level event, he said, recognised an urgent need for Ghana to develop a national strategy for fighting organised crime.
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Mr. Martin Amidu, in a speech read on his behalf by the Director of Public Prosecution, Miss Getrude Gladys Aikens, maintained that criminal syndicates involved in the trans-national crimes control considerable resources and therefore, pose a great danger to the economies of countries.
He revealed that the Ghana Bar Association (GABA), currently estimates an annual $7, 30 billion churned through illicit trade, $300 billion to 1.5 trillion and $1.5 trillion through counterfeiting and piracy respectively.
Mr. Amidu called for the need to coordinate and harmomise efforts of state and non state institutions in fighting these threats posed by transnational crimes.
The Deputy West Africa Regional representative of UNODC, Mr. Cyriaque Sobtafo, estimated the annual global proceeds of drug to 1.5 percent of the aggregate global Gross Domestic Product saying, “drug trafficking is the engine generating an estimated $320 billion annually”.
Modern slavery trafficking in human beings, he said, brings in $32 billion each year, with an estimated 2.5 million victims.
According to him, the trade is putting fragile regions at greater risk, undermining rule of law, depleting human resources and jeopardizing health.
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