Tagor and Abass in court yesterday
By William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday August 15 2007
THERE was dramatic twist to the trial of two persons charged with narcotic offences at the Fast Track High Court in Accra yesterday when a witness brought in by one of the accused persons gave evidence against him.
The witness, Colonel Isaac Kwasi Akuoko (rtd) former Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), who had been subpoenaed at the instance of Alhaji Issah Abass one of the accused told the packed court that he had no hand in any secret recording as claimed by Abass.
Abass had said in evidence that he did the recording of the tape in ACP Kofi Boakye’s house and handed the tape to Colonel Akuoko in the presence of Ben Ndego then Operations Officer of NACOB.
Mr. Mohammed Attah, counsel for Abass who was leading Mr. Akuoko in evidence cut in to say that the witness was not being truthful to the court and sought its order “to attack his integrity.”
“My Lord, from the instructions I received, it has become clear to me that the witness is not telling the truth. He is rather testifying against us. We are having contrary answers and we wish to apply to treat him as a hostile witness.”
Asked by the trial judge, Justice Jones Dotse of the Court of Appeal the reason for seeking to attack the integrity of the witness, Mr. Attah said, “It is because he has taken us by surprise.”
He argued that under Section 80(1) and 70(5) of the Evidence Decree, the defence team has the right to do so if answers being solicited from a witness are not forthcoming.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions submitted that as far as the prosecution was concerned, the witness had been consistent in his evidence and referred the court Section 82 of the same decree.
The judge then dismissed Mr. Attah’s request to treat Col. Akuoko as a hostile witness saying, “from the scratch, the witness has denied any suggestion that he knew about the source of the tape. This is similar to oath against oath situation in which the court sometimes finds itself.”
He said, “The demeanor of the witness has not changed. The substance of the case has also not changed and he has so far not given any conflicting evidence for the court to grant counsel’s request to attack the credibility of the witness.”
Narrating to the court what he knows about the case, Col. Akuoko said he does not know Kwabena Amaning, popularly called Tagor, the other accused person. It , however, said he “casually knows Abass when he once came to my office to say he had some vehicles to sell to NACOB but because there was no resources we could not buy any of the vehicles.”
He told the court that in May last year, he ordered investigations into the circumstances leading to the importation of parcels of cocaine brought by a vessel called Benjamin to the Tema Port. The investigation was headed by Mr Ndego.
“In the process, the investigating team came across a recorded conversation at a meeting between ACP Boakye and some suspected drug dealers and immediately I asked my staff to work and analyse the recording and submit a report to me.”
He said he then travelled to Benin to attend a United Nations Conference on narcotic and when he came back he, together with Mr. Ndego, was asked to proceed on leave over the missing of five kilogrammes of cocaine which was part of a total of 30kg found on the vessel.
“Ndego did not tell me anything on the recorded conversation. I did not see the recordings and I do not recall that Ndego came to my office in the company of Abass.”
“I have never entertained Ndego or Abass in my office.”
The witness said in the course of the investigations, the Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Board, Mr. Emmanuel Kyerematen Agyarko whom he described as an active member of the board of NACOB, said it was Ndego who gave him a copy of the tape.
“I cannot recall the NACOB official who received the tape but I did listen to a portion of it when my staff drew my attention to it. No one handed any tape to me. I did not see or touch it.”
Cross Examined by Ms Aikins, Col Akuoko said he once appeared before the Justice Georgina Wood Committee adding, “the evidence I gave there is exactly what I am telling this court.”
When Mr. Ellis Owusu Fordjuor, counsel for Tagor took his turn, Col Akuoko told the court that his contract as the head of NACOB expired on March 31, 2006, before the incident and repeated that he had no intention of going back to the board.
He said he had not received his end of service benefit and added that “I have not asked for it. Even at the time I was being asked to proceed on leave, I was not getting my salary.”
He further told the court that he was not in a position to dispute the originator of the tape and insisted that he did not know the source or who had done the recording.
He also said NACOB did not have any documentary proof that the MV Benjamin brought 77 parcels of cocaine but it was one of the crew who had disclosed this.
The court did not discharge Col. Akuoko but said he might be called to clarify certain portions of his evidence if the defence counsel made that request.
Before the testimony of Col. Akuoko another witness Akwasi Amarno, an auto mechanic brought by Tagor also told the court that, a man called Kofi Asare, who the police say was Tagor’s driver was his nephew.
He said Asare died on November 25, last year at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi when a motor bike on which he rode collided with a taxi cab. He tendered in evidence all the documents concerning Asare’s death.
However, when Ms. Aikins suggested to him that he did not have his name on Asare’s obituary even though he claimed he was his nephew, Amarno insisted that Asare had died.
After the proceedings, the court ordered the Tema Regional Police Commander and his Crime Officer or their representatives to appear before it today to explain the reasons for arresting one of the two men Abass mentioned in his testimony as assisting the police to arrest all those involved in bringing the 77 parcels of cocaine.
The court also ordered M Ben Botchwey, the current Executive Director of NACOB to appear before it to explain whether the subpoena had been served on Mr. Ndego.
Tagor and Abass were among 14 people recommended for prosecution by the Justice Georgina Wood Committee set up by the Ministry of the Interior last year to investigate a case of 77 parcels brought into the country by the vessel, MV Benjamin and another quantity of substance seized from a house at East Legon in Accra in November 2005.
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