I read with such horror and disbelief the arrest of Ghana's Airport Security Boss, Solomon Adelaquaye, in the United States of America (USA). Apparently Mr. Adelaquaye was arrested together with two Nigerians and a Colombian, in May 2013, for their role in a drug trafficking syndicate which had been operating in the West Africa Sub-Region.
The arrest of Mr Adelaquaye is a very humiliating for us as a nation. How come the authorities ended up appointing a drug kingpin to be in charge of security at one of the busiest ports of entry in West Africa. Only God knows what sought of criminal activities had been carried by Mr Adelaquaye (and his Company Sohin) during the period he had been in charge of airport security since 2009. The recent termination of Sohin's contract by the government is not enough. We need answers from government as to how Sohin Security was appointed to manage airport security.
There had been telltales about the character and credibility of Sohin Security in the last several years. For example in 2010, Mr Adelaquaye and his boys were involved in another scandal in which entry documents processed by Sohin Security Checks Ltd, for an American businessman, turned out to be fake when inspected by the Ghana Immigration Service. ( please read the full story at this link http://ghanaianreactoronline.com/news_details.php?newsid=2703 ). In most recent times, sometime around January 2013, it was reported by the media that 80 million dollars worth of Ghana’s gold, that was being transported to Iran, had been seized at a Turkish airport because there were no documents covering the cargo. I remember President John Mahama ordered investigations into the gold scandal. Up till now I am not sure there had been any conclusion to that matter. If anybody knows what happened to the investigations, please inform the public. At any rate, now I am beginning to think that the gold scandal might have been engineered and carried out by Ghana's Airport Security, Sohin.
Now how he got his appointment: According to a story written by Charles Takyi-Boadu and published in the Daily Guide newpaper in 2010 " Somewhere in February 2009, Gbevlo Lartey issued a directive asking the various state institutions operating at the airport not to renew contracts they had with the various security companies operating there." The then newly appointed Managing Director (Mrs. Doreen Owusu Fianko) of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL), indicated then that there was nothing wrong with the termination of the contracts of the security companies. According to the Daily Guide, Mr Gbevlo Lartey and the GACL Board were said to have circumvent laid-down rules and appointed Sohin Security, a company which has virtually no experience in handling security issues at the airport. DAILY GUIDE confirmed in thier 2010 report that they had confirmed that Sohin, which is owned by a strong member of the ruling party, Solomon Adelaquaye, managed to secure an operating license as a recognized private security company only three months before he was awarded the contract, even though the basic requirements, as stated on the tender document, required a company to have 6 years experience before it would be awarded the contract.
(please read Daily Guide's report at http://www.modernghana.com/news/299086/1/gbevlo-lartey-strikes-at-kia.html )
From the foregoing, one cannot fault a reasonable person from assuming that the appointment of Solomon Adelaquaye as the head of Airport Security was orchestrated by high level government officials who wanted their "man" at the helm so that they can carry our criminal activities with impunity. One may choose to disagree with my views or even tag me politically, but in the end I think we as nation should bow our head in shame. When evil goes on in this our beloved country and we don't speak about them, WE ALL SUFFER.