Dep. minister-designate considers legal action against BNI over cocaine tag

Deputy Agric minister-designate, George Oduro, has expressed surprised at a report by Ghana’s Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) linking him to a cocaine syndicate in Geneva in Switzerland.

Describing the work of the BNI on the report as shoddy, Mr Oduro wondered how such a security apparatus could fail to do due diligence before writing the said report dated March 23, 2017 to President Nana Akufo-Addo. He said Friday that he is consulting with lawyers over the matter and in due course, make a decision on the matter.

According to the BNI report, Mr Oduro, also known as George Best and George Kwame Oduro aka Kay, was on May 19, 2008 mentioned as a principal suspect in a cocaine case in Geneva, Switzerland where he is wanted. It claimed that Mr Oduro arrived at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra on May 17, 2008, on a Canadian passport numbered LJ557784 aboard Royal Air Maroc.

READ: BNI wants Akufo-Addo’s minister-designate withdrawn over cocaine “He is believed to be an accomplice of Nelson Troy EDWARD, a Ghanaian arrested in Geneva on 13th July, 2007 for possessing three thousand and fourteen (3,014) grams of cocaine,” the BNI report stated.

According to the BNI, the investigating Magistrate who handled the case involving Nelson Troy, issued an international arrest warrant for Mr Oduro’s arrest in 2008. But responding to the allegations Friday morning on Accra-based local radio station Onua FM, Mr Oduro who is the Member of Parliament for New Edubiase refuted the claim, saying he has never held a Canadian passport and cannot be the one being referred to in the report from the BNI.

“I have not dealt in Cocaine in my life, Asempa you know me well and I cannot understand why the BNI boss could do such a shoddy job,” Mr Oduro told host of Yen Sempa, Bright Kwasi Asempa Friday. He said that he does not know the said Nelson Troy EDWARD and wondered why the BNI boss did not find it expedient to call him (George Oduro) to find out if the reports were true before writing that report to the President.

“I am not called Kwame. That is not my name. My birth name is and has been Kofi and the BNI could not find out these simple details? I am surprised,” Mr Oduro said. He was also not happy that the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, with his experience in Parliament, could not also crosschecked the said report when he received the petition 14 clear days.