By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday April 9, 2007
Lance Corporal Dwamena Yabson, one of the three policemen standing trial over the missing 76 parcels of cocaine yesterday told an Accra Fast Track High Court that some of the evidence he gave when he opened his defence was a 'slip-off'.
I had lost memory of my statement in September last year because of the condition in which I was.'
Yabson said this when the prosecution led by Mrs. Stella Badu, a Senior State Attorney suggested to him that he attempted to give conflicting evidence in statements he gave to the police when he was arrested.
Yabson further said 'the incident happened in April last year and by the time I was writing my statement I had lost memory but I slept over it and can now recollect what happened'.
Yabson is being tried together with Sergeant David Nyarko and and another Lance Corporal Peter Bundorin, have been charged in connection with the missing cocaine brought into the country on April 25, last year, by the MV Benjamin vessel.
They were alleged to have collected undisclosed amount in US dollars from Sherriff Asem Darke, the police's most wanted man in connection with the importation of 77 parcels of the cocaine, 76 of which were offloaded at the Kpone beach near Tema by the fugitive and his men but the policemen who saw him left him off the hook.
The police says the policemen saw Sheriff, a Korean called Killer and other unidentified persons off load the cartons of cocaine into a white van at the beach but instead of arresting him, sat in the fugitive's land cruiser to Tema to collect the money.
Another policeman, Detective Sergeant Samuel Yaw Amoah who played a leading role in the case escaped soon after he was granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court in September last year.
The accused, all with the Tema Regional Police Command, have pleaded not guilty to two counts of engaging in prohibited business related to narcotic drugs and corruption by a public officer.
They are currently in police custody.
Yabson comfirmed to the court in his statement to the police that he knew the house of Sheriff's wife at Tema and further told the court that whilst at the Kpone beach Sheriff rolled down the window of the land cruiser he was driving and shouted his name to which suprised him.
He had told the court in his evidence-in-chief that at the beach he was very sick and could not do anything and sat on a stone metres away from where Amoah and Sheriff stood but yesterday he admitted being close to the vehicle, enquiring from Sheriff what he was doing at the beach and even going ahead to search the car.
Yabson had further said he did not see Amoah immediately he got to the beach but during cross-examination he told the court presided over by Justice Annin Yeboah of the Court of Appeal that all the policemen except those from Kpone had walked along the beach to tail the suspects and after picking a taxi to get reinforcement from the Kpone Police Station he came back to strategise with his colleagues on way to get Sheriff.
He admitted knowing Sheriff even before the incident but denied the figitive was his friend adding that 'anytime Sheriff cames to Tema Community One Police Station where I work as a detective he goes to my superiors and not me. He was also the friend of Sergeant who is now deceased'.
In his evidence-in-chief Yabson said he had never been to Sheriff's house but yesterday he said Sheriff drove them from the Kpone beach to his residence at Community Five in Tema where Amoah and one of the fishermen who stepped out of the car into the fugitive's house, in front of which there were wild dogs.
He also said in his evidence-in-chief that at the time of his arrest, the benz car, which the police suspect he used part of the money given them by Sheriff to purchase was with his friend called Stanley but he told the court yesterday that the car was with him on the day of arrest.
Yabson told the court that he could not remember the day on which he was arrested and insisted that he was the first policeman to receive information about the cocaine from the fishermen and not Amoah.
When the prosecution suggested to him that the informant who accompanied hin to the beach was called Joe, Yabson replied that he knows that informant to be Martey and further denied that Nyarko was the policeman in uniform who had accompanied them in the operaration.
Yabson had also told the court when he sat in Sheriff's car he placed his head on the back seat and never raised his head until they got to Tema because he was indisposed and panted but when the prosecution said that was an attempt to deceive the court he replied that 'I could not say so because it is not everything I could tell court'.
He also told the court that when they got to the entrance of Sheriff's residence the fugitive said he wanted Amoah as hsi friend and Amoah entered to pass water.
He also admitted he had a birthday party at a hotel in Community Four, Tema after the incident.
When Nyarko took his turn to cross examine hi colleague due to the absence of his counsel, Yabson told the court that he had never met Nyarko before their arrests
During Bundorin's turn, Yabson said from the position where his colleague was placed one could not detect any activity from the beach.
Bundorin is expected to open his defence at the next adjourned date on August 13.
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