The cat is out of the bag! NPP’s claims that it was unethical for Ghana’s consular officials in the United Kingdom (UK) to visit Cocaine Ruby in custody, was borne out of political subterfuge and hypocrisy, as the practice is not new where the NPP is concerned.

Ghana’s Consular General in the USA, under the Kufuor-led NPP government, paid regular visits to Eric Amoateng, on specific instructions from the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, NEPAD and Regional Integration, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, before the NPP MP was sentenced to a 10-year jail term for trafficking large quantities of heroin into that country.

The NPP went ballistic in its criticisms when Ghana’s Consulate in the UK, in a bid to ascertain the true identity of Nayele Ametefe, alias Ruby Adu Gyamfi in a bid to abreast itself with the facts of her arrest as standard practice requires. The opposition party claims the visit by the consulate officials was in bad taste and described it as unacceptable, alleging that it was a move by Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK, Mr Victor Smith, to cover up the Mahama government’s complicity in the drug trade.

But the records have exposed this claim by the NPP as another big fat lie manufactured at the propaganda factory of the opposition party, aimed at confusing unsuspecting Ghanaians and to make them believe that President Mahama and his family have had a hand in Nayele Ametefe’s failed attempt at trafficking 12.5kilos of cocaine valued at $5million into the UK.

Facts of Akufo-Addo’s Amoateng visits- From the horse’s own mouth

None other than the twice defeated NPP flagbearer himself revealed that the NPP government did not abandon Eric Amoateng whilst he remained in custody following his arrest for dealing in drugs.

On his instruction as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Nana Akufo-Addo had ensured that Amoateng enjoyed regular official visits from the Ghanaian Embassy in the USA.

Captured under the headline ‘We won’t suppress info on Amoateng’ in The Ghanaian Times publication of Tuesday, May 16, 2006 page 7, Nana Akufo-Addo in his own words revealed that he had tasked the Consular General to make the busted drug trafficker and NPP MP for Nkoranza feel comfortable in his prison custody by paying him regular visits in detention.

Below is The Ghanaian Times publication

‘We won’t suppress info on Amoateng’

“The Minister of Foreign Affairs, NEPAD and Regional Integration, Nana Akufo-Addo has said that, there is no attempt on the part of government to suppress any information on Eric Amoateng, Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North Constituency, who was arrested in the USA last November for allegedly dealing in narcotic drugs.

“He said Ghana’s Consular General in the USA has been paying regular visits to him in custody and that, since no court of competent jurisdiction in the USA has pronounced him guilty, people, should be very careful on their pronouncement on the matter.

“The minister was answering a question posed to him in Cape Coast after he had delivered a paper on “Patriotism” at a public lecture organised by the UCC Graduate Students Association (GRASAG) to mark their week long celebrations.” (Emphasis ours)

Hannah Tetteh Vindicated

In a an interview with Accra-based Radio Gold, the Minister of foreign Affairs and regional Integration, ostensibly to set the records straight on varied falsehoods that have been peddled with regards to the ‘Cocaine Ruby’ saga, Hon. Hannah Tetteh stated that officials of the Ghana High Commission in the UK visited the busted lady in custody on her instructions. The idea, she explained, was to ascertain the facts as to whether she was indeed a Ghanaian and why she was arrested.

According to Hannah Tetteh, Nayele told the officials that “she went through the VIP lounge [as against claims by the NPP that she used the VVIP lounge]. She didn’t carry anything unto the plane, [but] when she got unto the plane somebody who was a grand staff brought a bag to her, she doesn’t know who the person was but the person knew her name and the seat in which she was sitting.”

Hannah Tetteh stated that a businessman called one Mr Armah of the Foreign Ministry to facilitate the easy passage of Nayele Ametefe and her two accomplices through the VIP lounge. She however did not disclose the name of the said businessman.

She also mentioned that Nayele Ametefe questioned the Consular officials why they came to visit since she did not travel to the UK on a Ghanaian passport but an Austrian one, indicating that she considers herself an Austrian on this occasion.

NPP Minority’s hot-headed bellicosity

In what can be described in the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu’s own words as hot-headed bellicosity, the NPP Minority went overdrive in its criticism of the Foreign Minister and the Ghana high Commissioner to the UK.

With invectives embedded in a verbose language, the Minority leader, among others, had this to say: “The Nayele Ametefeh affair is not only a sordid matter but one that is still surrounded in mystery. The saga seems to be thickening. Thus far there have been several contradictory reports. Soon after the new broke out of the arrest of the character in question there appeared to be a mad rush to clean up the act. That explains why the Ghana’s High Commission to the UK, Ambassador Victor Smith spoke on several radio channels and stated his concern and discomfort and was indeed frantic in having access to the narcotics lady in prison custody while complaining that the UK authorities failed to inform him of the arrest. The question remains, how many Ghanaians who have been arrested have been visited by our ambassadors and high commissioners.”

The Minority Leader went on: “The jitters and the convulsion that have afflicted the NDC in this Nayele Ametefeh VVIP cocaine saga is simply frightening even though one would have thought that it is such occasions that require cool heads and not hot-headed bellicosity. The nation watches in wild amazement the philippic responses from government functionaries: a tale of two cabinet Ministers and two deputy ministers. All this is, unfortunately, not comical to a nation in deep financial and economic distress, it is a macabre dance involving who the gods want to destroy by first making mad.”

Lies fall flat

There have been claims that Nayele Ametefe was the girlfriend of either President Mahama or his brother, Ibrahim Mahama among others. Establishing these wild claims would have meant that the John Mahama-led NDC government is neck deep in the drug trade, as has been said of the erstwhile Kufuor-led NPP government. This has failed to materialise.

It is rather turning out that the businessman referred to by Hon Hannah Tetteh, has strong links with the NPP, who has been on the run since. His name is Alhaji Mohammed Alamid Dawood, also known as Alhaji Sani Dawudat.

Below is how Daily Graphic reported the news on the wanted man

“The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) has declared Alhaji Mohammed Alamid Dawood wanted for allegedly helping Nayele Ametefeh, the suspect busted with 12.5 kilogrammes of cocaine, and her two friends to use the VIP Lounge of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra.

“The wanted man, also known as Alhaji Sani Dawudat, is the Business Development Manager of KELM Engineering Limited located at Kanda in Accra.

“Alhaji Dawood is said to have called Abiel Ashitey Armah, a Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is the officer in charge of the VVIP and VIP Unit of the KIA, on phone to allow the ladies to use the VIP Lounge and also help them onto the tarmac to board the airline for London.

“Since the news of the arrest of 13 suspects in connection with the cocaine saga, Alhaji Dawood, a resident of Community 20, Lashibi, has gone into hiding.”