Customs officer escapes perjury charge

Accra, Sept. 11, GNA - Mr George Dadson, a customs officer on Tuesday apologised to the Committee Investigating Operational Irregularities at the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) for telling lies to the Committee.

He thus escaped the action of facing the charge of perjury at a court.

The Committee, at its sitting in Accra, accepted the apology rendered by his legal counsel, Mr Sam Awotwe. Mr Justice Samuel Glenn Baddoo, Chairman of the Committee accepted the apology and said Mr Awotwe had taken the right step on behalf of his client.

The Committee reprimanded Mr Dadson and asked him to be of good behaviour whenever he appeared before any judicial committee. The Chairman however recalled that Mr Dadson had been exceptionally rude and insolent, and showed no respect at all to the Committee when he gave evidence. "The way he comported himself was extremely unacceptable," Mr Justice Baddoo said. The Committee on Monday had committed Mr Dadson to the charge of perjury.

Mr Justice Baddoo had told a hearing in Accra that the Committee had come to a conclusion that Mr Dadson had told "a deliberate, blatant lie to the Committee." He thus ordered the police to take a statement of a charge of perjury against the witness, who is also an assistant collector of the CEPS, and put him before court.

Perjury is the crime of willfully telling lies under oath. It is a second-degree felony with a maximum conviction of 10 years. Mr Dadson had earlier appeared before the Committee and was cross-examined by Sgt. George Tetteh, of the Police CID. His answer to most of the questions was: " I can't remember." Sergeant Tetteh had sat opposite to Mr Dadson, and produced a business card, which he said Mr Dadson had given him on his first visit to the CEPS office, when he was investigating a case of evasion of customs duty on an imported car.

Mr Dadson agreed that the card was his, but said he could not recall that he had met and talked with Sgt. Tetteh on all the three different occasions that Sgt. Tetteh said he had met him. Before committing him, the chairman asked Mr Dadson to show cause why the committee should not commit him to perjury. Mr Dadson replied that perhaps he had not explained himself well or the committee did not understand him well. "Whatever I said was the truth, people come in and go everyday. I don't dispute the fact that I might have seen him," Mr Dadson said. At his earlier evidence, members of the Committee challenged the professional competence and reliability of the Mr Dadson, who said he held a Higher National Diploma in Electrical Engineering and had worked with the Service for more than two years. Mr Baddoo also chastised Mr Dadson as rude and impertinent, when Mr Dadson asked the Committee if he could do otherwise than say that he could not recognize the police officer. He had however indicated that despite his forgetfulness, it was possible Sgt. Tetteh might have interacted with him. According to Sgt. Tetteh, he had a tip-off in May, this year, that, custom documents on an Acura saloon car, imported from the US and was in the possession of one Mr Yaw Owusu-Achiaw, were fake. He went to the CEPS IT Room in Accra, to verify the information, which after checking, Mr Dadson told him were genuine and that the duty had been paid. However, the informant told him that the papers were not genuine and after further interactions with Mr Dadson, he prepared the case, which is still pending, before a court. 11 Sept. 07