The Ayawaso East constituency organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ismaila Ali Horoya, has been arrested by British security agents in London for transporting cocaine into that country.
His arrest has been confirmed by the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, after weeks of speculations, with NDC members not ready to broach the topic.
He travelled out of the country a fortnight ago through the Kotoka International Airport where Nayele Ametefe also passed through with her over 12 kilograms of cocaine. But having overstayed, tongues began wagging in Horoya’s Nima neighbourhood among his close associates as to what could have been responsible for his delayed return.
A confirmation of the arrest by the minister yesterday on an Adom FM radio programme corroborates a DAILY GUIDE exclusive report earlier about the arrest a fortnight ago, although the details regarding the suspect were withheld at the time for want of confirmation.
The minister, who is a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and the Interior, and MP for the Kpone Katamanso constituency in the Greater Accra Region, was discussing the challenges of the Narcotics Control Board in the execution of its mandate when he dropped what for long remained under wraps, with residents keeping mute about the arrest in London.
Typical of such stories in closely knit communities such as Nima, news about the arrest of popular Ali Horoya, who is well connected, was restricted to street side gossips by acquaintances and others who could not dare broach the subject openly.
Some curious friends made visits to the family house to find out more but came back with no definite stuff about how it all happened, such details confined to only family members.
When the days elapsed with no news about the arrest coming from official sources, and with theDAILY GUIDE report about it falling short of the details for obvious reasons, his acquaintances relied on snippets which came from sometimes incredible sources.
The confirmation, from no mean a person than the Greater Accra Regional Minister, put paid to a disturbing anxiety among party supporters and others outside it.
“I was trying to do my own investigations and it came out that he was arrested in his London home dealing in drugs with certain people…,” the minister told Adom FM yesterday.
Ismaila Ali Horoya had eluded the checkpoints at the Kotoka International Airport with his cargo of the illegal stuff, but the British security trailed him to his abode and nabbed him.
Son of a former Member of the Council of State, the politician vied for the position of constituency organiser in this sprawling suburb of Accra during the party’s election last year.
For those who have suspected the gentleman of being in the cocaine business for some time now, the apprehension has confirmed their suspicions.
With this latest arrest, politicians especially with links to ruling parties, could lose the privileges associated with their possession of diplomatic passports. This paper is unable to determine which travel documents he wielded at the time of his arrest – details which curious persons would want to know at this time.
The arrest of a Ghanaian with the illicit stuff with political undertones happened in 2015 when Nayele Ametefe was grabbed at Heathrow with cocaine weighing some 12.5 kilograms. She too eluded arrest in Ghana.
Political party representatives on the airwaves will definitely have something to maul over, with another cocaine subject making the headline.
Eric Amoateng, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP, was arrested in the US where he did time in prison before his release last year.
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(Selorm) | 
(Nana Kwesi)