ACP Kofi Boakye for parliament?

KOFI BOAKYE QUITS?
*Prepares grab Manhyia seat

As former Minister of Defence and MP for Manhyia, Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, continues to pursue his dream to replace his brother as the next President of Ghana, the embattled former Operations Director of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Kofi Boakye, is reported to be lacing his ‘boots’ to take over the Manhyia parliamentary seat in the upcoming 2008 elections.

Sources close to ACP Boakye hinted Gye Nyame Concord that since he was asked to go on leave by the Police Service over the infamous meeting he held with alleged illicit drug dealers at his private residence, the young and dynamic police officer has been contemplating on quitting the Service and venturing into either private security business or politics.

Sources say Mr. Boakye would however opt to contest the Manhyia parliamentary seat in order to enter the nation’s eminent House as an Honourable Member.

According to his confidants, ACP Boakye’s decision to quit the Police Service is motivated by two major concerns, including his suspicion that the Service might not recall him to continue his anti-robbery campaign, which made him popular in the eyes of the general public.

Contacted, ACP Boakye declined to confirm or deny the story, saying it was premature to discuss his future at the moment, citing the ongoing cocaine trial involving Kwabena Amaning aka Tagor, and Alhaji Issah Abass as a case that would have an impact on his carreer.

He however pledged that he would make his future intentions clear at the appropriate time when the chips are down and the dust had settled.

Last year, what could best be described as the biggest cocaine scandal in the history of Ghana hit the nation when 76 parcels of substances believed to be cocaine disappeared from a shipping vessel, MV Benjamin, on Ghanaian territorial waters even though it was being monitored by the country’s security agencies.

When the whereabouts of the 76 parcels of cocaine became the headache of the nation, especially the security agencies, ACP Kofi Boakye, according to his accounts, decided to delve into the matter with the motive of unveiling the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the said smuggled cocaine.

As a result, he convened a meeting at his private residence in which personalities believed to be involved in the underworld business attended.

Fortunately or unfortunately, one of those present at the meeting recorded the whole conversation which later became public knowledge.

Those present at the said meeting included Kwabena Amaning aka Tagor, Alhaji Abass and Kwabena Acheampong alias Asumankwa.

As a result of the leakage of the secret tape recording as well as the missing parcels of cocaine, the government set up a committee chaired by now Chief Justice, Mrs. Georgina Wood, to look into the missing drug scandal and their whereabouts.

However, since being interdicted over the issues discussed at the meeting, no charges have been preferred against ACP Kofi Boakye. Neither has he been identified as a witness in the ongoing trial of Alhaji Abass and Tagor.

Instead, the alleged two drug dealers on trial over the scandal - Tagor and Alhaji Abass – have both claimed that they were made to set up Boakye by former Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) Executive Secretary, Mr. Ben Ndego, who has subsequently been described as a drug dealer by the prosecution in the trial.

Boakye is known to be an Ashanti New Town (Ashtown) ‘boy’. Ashtown is a suburb in Kumasi close to Manhyia, the seat of the Ashanti Kingdom.

According to sources, authorities had been tipped off in late April 2006 that a Ghana-registered fishing trawler called the Adede II was transporting drugs.