By William Yaw Owusu
Monday November 5, 2007
An Accra Fast Track High Court on Friday dismissed an application for discontinuation of a case against Lance Corporal Ekow Russell one of the nine policemen interdicted by the Police Administration in April for allegedly dealing in cocaine.
The application had been filed by his counsel Captain Nkrabea Effah-Darteh (Retired) on the grounds that Russell had been processed before the Police Service Enquiry at a time when the trial was proceeding , describing the move as unconstitutional.
It was at a time when the prosecution led by Mrs. Evelyn Keelson, a Principal State Attorney was about to call the fourth prosecution witness.
Captain Effah-Darteh argued that Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Article 19(7) did not allow an accused person to be tried twice and urged the court to either discontinue the trial or order the Police Service to drop the Service Enquiry against Russell.
Ms Keelson objected to counsel’s submission saying the accused person is facing a criminal charge and what the Police Service sought to do did not mean Russell was being tried twice.
Dismissing the application, Justice S.Y. Anim of the Court of Appeal who is the trial judge said Russell could not tell the court the specific offence he was facing at the Police Service Enquiry.
The court said the enquiry was being done by an administrative body but what that body will come out with will not have an effect on the trial
Russell is being tried with Maxwell Antwi, a car dealer, who the prosecution believes was supplied with the narcotic drugs by the policeman.
Russell is facing three counts of possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority, supplying narcotic drugs without lawful authority and dealing in prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs while Antwi is charged with one count of possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
Russell and seven other policemen together with Antwi appeared before an Accra Circuit Court in May and were remanded into police custody.
They include George Akoi, Isaac Annang, Dominic Amedzah and Anthony Agyei, all Lance Corporals.
The rest are Constable Collins Ohemeng, Inspector Oppong Kyei and Sergeant Francis Arthur all of the Accra regional Police Command.
The police at the time also pursued Detective Inspector Justice Nana Oppong who was alleged to be involved in the case but later abandon the move and Mr. Oppong himself has since testified as a prosecution witness in the case.
They were discharged by the court on June 21 following a ‘nolle prosqui’ (unwilling to pursue) application filed by the Attorney-General’s (AG) department.
But they were immediately re-arrested on the orders of the AG.
Currently it is only Russell who is being tried.
The fact of the case are that on March 27, Antwi was arrested by the police with a whitish powdered substance which was later tested and found to be cocaine.
During interrogation, he alleged that was part of the 900 grammes of cocaine given to him by Russell to sell for the policeman and claimed he had already sold some quantities and given the proceeds to Russell.
Russell, when picked, allegedly confirmed that he had given the cocaine to Antwi to sell for him after he seized the narcotic drugs from some Nigerian drug dealers.
Prosecution said investigations revealed that on January 16, Russell together with a team of policemen and accompanied by some Nigerian informants arrested Sebastian Uba, also a Nigerian with eight slabs of cocaine.
Russell, according to the prosecution, asked his colleagues to position themselves outside Uba's house while the accused entered with the informants.
"While his colleagues sent the suspect to the police station, Russell and the informants drove in one car towards Achimota with the cocaine and when they got to a point Russell distributed the drugs among the informants."
Russell allegedly gave give slabs of the cocaine to the informants, brought one to the office and kept two thus creating the impression that he had seized only one slab from Uba.
The prosecution further told the court that Uba escaped from police custody on January 31, when Russell was instructed to bring the fugitive to the Regional C.I.D. office for investigations from the La District Police Station.
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