Ex-IGP & Top Police Officer Wanted

Pieces of information picked up by The Herald suggest that ex-Inspector General of Police (IGP) Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong and the ex-CID boss Frank Adu-Poku, have some answers to provide to some questions at the ongoing Cocaine-turned baking powder probe.

Details are sketchy but insiders close to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) are suggesting that the two senior police officers could be answering questions from the BNI on events before and after the August 2008 arrest of Nana Ama Martin, a suspected drug courier.

What is clear is that Mr. Acheampong and Mr. Adu-Poku will be explaining why they failed to adequately prosecute the case in 2008 when the substance was identified as cocaine and why they never made any attempt to re-arrest the lady when she fled to the US. The failure to destroy the cocaine soon after test is also likely to be queried.

The lady’s arrest in 2008 is said to have been very eventful and sparked a wild controversy and even anger within the Police hierarchy.

This paper is informed that Nana Ama had links within the top brass of the police administration as well as some senior politicians hence, she was not to be prosecuted until the current CID boss Prosper Agblor “stubbornly” stood his grounds and revived the case by arresting her surety.

Nana Ama Martin, was on her way to the Kotoka International Airport in Accra onboard a taxi to travel abroad, when she was chased and busted by a team of police officers who sent her to the Police Headquarters. Two luggages were found on her at the time. She owned up for one but denied the one containing the cocaine.

A man who she said was in the cab with her but fled upon seeing the police owned the parcel. Nana Ama Martin and taxi driver in their statements to the police insisted, that the bag with the cocaine parcel was for the runaway passenger.

The taxi driver also claimed that Nana Ama Martin, never hired him but rather the man who fled.

But her appearance in court was only meant as a charade to appease the arresting officers, who many top officers held to have overstepped their limits.

Therefore, although, not entitled to bail, contrary to the amendment of the Criminal Code, pushed by Joe Ghartey when he was Attorney-General, making narcotic cases a non-bailable offense, Nana Ama got a bail and fled the shores of Ghana, to hide in the US.

She was lured into the country by the surety after she was told that the coast was cleared and that the case had died a natural death.

She was arrested upon entry into the country, with her lawyer, Kwabla Senanu asking for a re-testing of the cocaine by an independent body, and it turned out to be a baking powder.