Cocaine Committee ends public hearings

Accra, Aug. 31, GNA - The Justice Georgina Wood Committee set up to investigate two main cocaine scandals that rocked the country between late last year and the early part of this year, on Wednesday drew the curtains down on its public hearings.

The two scandals involved the suspected disappearance of 77 parcels of cocaine from MV Benjamin and an alleged 200,000 dollars bribe paid to Senior Police Officers by a 23-year-old woman, Ms Grace Asibi. Ms Asibi is the girlfriend of a Venezuelan drug fugitive Vasquez Geraldo Duarte David, who is at the centre of the seizure of some 588 kilos of cocaine from a house at East Legon in Accra.

Though the public hearing is over, the Committee would continue with its work of finalizing its report in line with the terms of reference of finding out the person or persons who brought the parcels on board MV Benjamin.

It would also try to determinate the actual number of narcotic drug parcels on the vessel immediately before it was intercepted and whether some of the parcels on board the vessel were removed from the vessel before it was intercepted. The Committee is to establish when and how the removal happened and recommend the appropriate punishment.

The Committee is also to investigate any other issues relating to the loss of narcotics drugs and make recommendations on how to avoid such occurrences.

The Committee had the additional mandate of investigating the various allegations levelled against some Police Officers with respect to the seizure of a quantity of narcotic drugs at East Legon and advice on appropriate actions against any person or persons found culpable. In all about 30 people appeared before the Committee, which started its public hearing on July 25 2006 with Ms Asibi, the prime witness in the East Legon drug seizure case, appearing first with Superintendent Edward Tabiri a Former Head of the Rapid Response Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

Some of the key persons, who appeared before the Committee in relation to the East Legon case included the Director-General of (CID), Mr David Asante Apeatu and his deputy Mr Patrick Ampewuah. In their evidence, they denied any act of bribery by Ms Asibi. Mr Ampewuah also denied a claim by Ms Asibi that he threatened her life in a phone call.

Other witnesses in that case were Mrs Gina Blay, Managing Editor of the 93Daily Guide=94 newspaper; Mrs Rosa Iris Dosoo, Secretary/Translator of Vasquez and Mr Robert Joseph Mettle Nunoo, who is also called Rojo.

In the case of the MV Benjamin, the issue which took centre stage was a recording of a conversation relating to the disappearance of the cocaine from the ship at a meeting between some alleged drug dealers in the house of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kofi Boakye. The key witnesses in that tape recording, which came to be known as the "Kofi Boakye Tape" were arrested when they came to testify before the Committee.

The witnesses included Alhaji Issah Abass; Kwabena Amaning also called Tagor and Kwabena Acheampong.

Other witnesses who testified before the Committee in that case included Colonel Isaac Kwesi Akuoko, Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB); Mr Ben Ndego, Director of Operations of NACOB and Mr Kofi Bentum Quanson, a Former National Security Co-ordinator and the First Executive Secretary of NACOB.

Mr Patrick Kwateng Acheampong, Inspector General of Police; Mr Francis Poku, Minister of National Security and Mr Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko, Executive Director of the Food and Drugs Board. Some security personnel from the Ghana Navy and Ghana Air Force also testified before the Committee.