By William Yaw Owusu
Friday March 23, 2007
The investigator in the case of two people charged with the disappearance of 76 parcels of cocaine from the MV Benjamin in April last year, yesterday told an Accra Fast Track High Court that he found 495,000 dollars in the bank account of Alhaji Issah Abass, one of the two suspects on trial.
Detective Inspector Charles Adaba, who is the Seventh Prosecution Witness (PW7), said he used information from the secret tape recording of the conversation between Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kofi Boakye, and some suspected drug dealers, including the two accused, to locate the bank account of the second accused person.
Alhaji Issah Abass and Kwabena Amaning, also known as Tagor, are on trial for their involvement in the disappeared of the cocaine. From the Tema Port.
Tagor and Abass were among the 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 of cocaine seized from a house in East Legon in Accra in November 2005.
They have pleaded not guilty to all the charges and are in prison custody.
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.
Led in evidence by Ms. Getrude Aikins, Acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Inspector Adaba told the court that Abass had stated on the secret recording that he had been questioned by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) over the transfer of the money.
“When I questioned him about it, he claimed that it was the proceeds of a sea foods business he transacted in New Zealand.”
He told the packed court that in the narcotics drug business the dealers use terminologies to describe or refer to the drugs and the kilogramme sold.
For instance, he said, the word cocaine is referred to as either “goods” or “business” and in Akan parlance they call it “Eneema” which literally means “goods.”
Inspector Adaba revealed that players in the narcotic drugs industry refer to kilogrammes as “keys” or “safoa” in Akan-while they refer to the deals in the trade as “Line.”
He further told the court that as drug dealers do not trust one another, they normally use front men such as their drivers to deal with their partners.
Inspector Adaba said Alhaji Abass on the tape mentioned Asem Darke, also called Limping man or Sheriff, as the person who chartered the MV Benjamin from Dashment Company Limited to cart the cocaine from the high seas into the country.
Witness said when he visited the vessel, he found that its cabin and other parts had been set on fire but could not tell the court who did it.
He further told the court that on the tape, the name Mama Tex came up as the woman who was supplied with the cocaine. He said he traced her to her furniture shop on the Spintex Road in Accra but discovered that she had traveled and had still not returned.
Inspector Adaba also told the court that he secured an Akan linguistic expert to assist the foreign experts who worked on the tape and visit the United Kingdom to see at first-hand how the voices on the tape were being identified.
He described to the court the sitting arrangement of the meeting at ACP Boakye’s house where the secret recording was done under a tree saying: “ACP Boakye sat, facing the rest of the four.”
This was after the court had overruled an objection by counsel for the accused persons who argued that the investigator was not present at the meeting.
On his secret recordings to help the experts to compare the voices on the original recording, Inspector Adaba said: “I recorded Tagor at Sekondi Prisons on November 2, and Abass at Ankaful Prisons on November 1, all in the presence of two senior police officers.”
When the prosecution sought to tender the new tape recordings, Nana Asante Bediatuo and Osafo Buaben, counsel for Tagor and Abass, respectively, objected, to it arguing that what inspector Adaba did was against the rules and infringed on the rights of their clients’ right to privacy.
Ms. Aikins, on the other hand, argued that the value of that recording out-weighed any perceived or imagined danger and contended that the rights that counsel was complaining of were not absolute.
The court, presided over by Justice Jones Dotse of the Court of Appeal adjourned proceedings until March 28, for the court to rule on whether the investigator’s secret recording of the voices of the accused persons could be admitted in evidence.
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