By William Yaw Owusu
Friday May 25, 2007
An Accra Fast Track High Court has said that it cannot order the re-positioning of the MV Benjamin, the vessel which brought 77 parcels of cocaine into the country, because it has not been tendered as an exhibit before the court.
The vessel, which has been impounded by the security agencies, is currently berthed at the FOQI in the Tema Fishing Harbour, but the Attorney-General’s Department says it has information that the vessel is sinking.
Based on the information, Mr. William Kpobi, the prosecutor in the trial of Joseph Kojo Dawson, the vessel owner, and five others charged over the importation of the cocaine, filed an ex-parte application for an order to have the vessel relocated.
Moving the motion yesterday, the prosecutor told the court that apart from the vessel getting sunk, it was also posing problems for the movement of other vessels at the port.
Declining it, Justice Annin Yeboah, of the Court of Appeal who is trying the case, said “as at now, the vessel is not in evidence for me to make such orders.”
He said the application should have been filed on notice to enable Dawson, who is an interested party, to respond appropriately.
After dismissing the motion, Mr. Enock Quaye, a Company Inspector at the Registrar Generals’ Department, testified as the 12th prosecution witness in the case.
He said Atico Fisheries Company Limited which Sheriff Asem Darke the police’s most wanted man in connection with the cocaine, used to enter into an agreement with Dashment Company Limited, to get the MV Benjamin Vessel, was incorporated on November 22, 2002.
He told the court that Atico Fisheries commenced business on November 29, that year and had Nene Darke Asem Sheriff and Ken Jo-Lee as well as John Wilfred as directors and secretary of the company respectively.
Mr. Quaye told the court that since the incorporation of the company, the directors had never filed any tax returns.
He also said Evans Charwetey Tsekobi, brother of Sheriff who was discharged by another High Court on Tuesday, was not a director of the company.
Turning to Dashment Company Limited, owners of the MV Benjamin, the witness told the court that it was incorporated on August 18, 1993 and had John Kobina Dawson, Joseph Kojo Dawson as its directors.
He said the company had the same directors and one Jonathan Klutse as the shareholders adding, “they applied to go into deep sea fishing, processing and importation of fish.”
He told the court that the company submitted an unaudited account from 1994 to 1998 adding “since then they have not submitted anything again.”
The court adjourned proceedings until May 28.
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