Court Admits Tape Recording In Cocaine Case

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, 29 March 2007
A SECRET recording by an investigator of the voices of five people in the missing cocaine case was yesterday admitted in evidence by an Accra Fast Track High Court.

At last week’s sitting, the defence had objected to the recordings being tendered in evidence.

The recordings were done by Detective Inspector Charles Adaba, the investigator in the case in which two of the five are being tried for their involvement in the missing parcels of cocaine from the MV Benjamin vessel at the Tema Port last April.

Inspector Adaba secretly recorded their voices during interrogation to enable him to authenticate the voices on another tape also secretly recorded at ACP Boakye’s house by an unknown person.

The two, Kwabena Amaning, also called Tagor, and Alhaji Issah Abass were among 14 people recommended for prosecution by the Justice Georgina Wood Committee set up by the Ministry of the Interior to investigate the missing 76 parcels of cocaine and another quantity seized from a house at East Legon in Accra.

Tagor is facing four counts of conspiracy, engaging in prohibited business related to narcotic drugs, buying of narcotic drugs and supply of narcotic drugs while Abass has been charged with three counts of conspiracy, engaging in prohibited business related to narcotic drugs and supply of narcotic drugs.

They have pleaded not guilty and are in prison custody.

Inspector Adaba had told the court on March 21 that when he forwarded the tape recorded at ACP Boakye’s home to experts in the United Kingdom for identification of the voices, they requested fresh voice recordings of all those people whose voices were heard on the tape, for comparison.

"In order that the participants, including the accused persons, did not disguise their voices, I recorded them without their knowledge and forwarded them to the experts," Mr Adaba told the court at the last sitting.

On March 21, when the prosecution led by Ms Gertrude Aikins, the acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), sought to tender Inspector Adaba’s recordings, Nana Asante Bediatuo and Osafo Buaben, counsel for Tagor and Abass respectively, objected to it.

They argued that what Inspector Adaba did was against the rules and infringed on their clients’ right to primary and some provisions of the constitution at large.

Over-ruling counsel’s objection yesterday, Presiding Appeal Court, Judge Jones Dotse, said admitting the new tape in evidence would not create any substantial danger, adding, it is to indicate the proof that the accused persons really took part in the conversation."

The judge said the issues involved before the secret recordings were done had been well explained by the prosecution and that "the court does not find any prejudice in the prosecution’s attempt."

Justice Dotse said that once the accused persons had been promptly charged and the trial had proceeded as expected, "the court does not see any breach of the provisions in the Constitution."

The Investigator has powers as a detective to interrogate them and the action taken is necessary considering the situation at the time."

The court adjourned proceedings until April 4, and asked the registrar of the court to make copies of the original recordings at ACP Boakye’s house to both the prosecution and defence counsel.