63-year-old German ‘burger’ turned squatter

Kofi Osei Boateng, a 63-year-old German ‘burger’ has had to live at a friend’s fitting shop to survive.

Osei Boateng, who has worked in an automobile factory in Germany for 23 years, has had to convert his friend’s shop into a room at night to have a roof over his head.

Narrating his story to Crimecheck foundation, Osei Boateng said, he was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport in 2005 for possessing narcotics and was slapped with 10-years sentence

“I was lured by friends into that business even though I was doing well with my job as a manual laborer, so on my third attempt I was arrested and everything on me was seized including my German resident permit, passport and some money’ he said.

According to him, after he had served his sentences in 2012, he visited the Narcotics Control Board to retrieve his seized items but to no avail.

“It has been 7-years now and they are playing hide and seek with me, I even took them to court and the court ruled that my items be returned to me but I am yet to receive them’ he lamented

Osei Boateng complained how the seizure of his items has restricted his movement and any attempt to engage in any business whatsoever.

Explaining further, he said he had a wife and 3 kids in Germany before his arrest and he loved to pay them a visit and possibly return to normal life but those thoughts remains wishes since NaCoB has hold on his documents which could aid him travel.

“I live like a pauper, at 63-years, I rely on the benevolence of others to keep body and soul together” he said.