Sheriff's brother discharged

By William Yaw Owusu

Wedneday May 24, 2007
An Accra Fast Track High Court yesterday discharged Evans Charwetey Tsekobi for laundering proceeds from a narcotic drug offence after nine months in police custody.

Tsekobi, 52, a mechanic, is the brother of Asem Darke, also known as ‘Sheriff’ or ‘Limping Man,’ wanted by the police for the importation of 77 parcels of cocaine which got lost on board the MV Benjamin vessel at the Tema Port in April last year.

Tsekobi was arrested in September the same year for keeping in house the land cruiser vehicle used by Sherriff to cart the 76 out of the 77 parcels of cocaine from the Kpone beach to an unknown location

The court presided over by Justice Iris May Brown of the Court of Appeal discharged Tsekobi following a Nolle Prosequi (unwilling to pursue) entered by the Attorney-Generals’ Department.

Mr William Kpobi, a Principal State Attorney moving the application to discharge Tsekobi said apart from the vehicle which was retrieved from his house at Kokompe in Kpone near Tema there was no evidence to try him.

He was charged under Section 12 of the Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement and Sanctions) Law 1990 (PNDC Law 236).

The particulars of offence are that on September 27, last year, Tsekobi hid a Land Cruiser belonging to his brother Sheriff in his house.

The vehicle was believed to be the one used by Sheriff when he met the policemen at the Kpone beach from where the cocaine was carted away.

He was said to have covered the vehicle with a tarpaulin to conceal it from the police when he knew that his brother was being wanted for crimes involving cocaine.

The vehicle was obtained as a result of the commission of the narcotic drug.

Sheriff, the most wanted man by the police in connection with the 77 parcels, allegedly chartered the MV Benjamin vessel from Dashment Company Limited to cart the cocaine from the high seas to the breakwaters of the Tema Port on April 26, last year.

Sheriff was 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.

Tsekobi has already been used as a prosecution witness in the trial of the vessel owner, Joseph Kojo Dawson and five other crew including a Korean and two Chinese.