I'll Scatter Kumasi

THE SON of Kumasi-based Alhaji Moro Mohammed, who is currently behind bars for his alleged role in the missing cocaine saga,has sent fears down the spines of the Garden City’s residents, with his threat to plunge the Ashanti Regional capital into total confusion.

Fuming with rage over what he sees as the wrongful arrest of his father, Yakubu Moro aka Yakubu Tony Aidoo warned, when he appeared on Kess Radio, a Kumasi-based FM station, that those who had associated his father with cocaine peddling would be beaten up by thugs he was going to organise.

As for the Garden City, he says hell is going to break loose when he turns his thugs on residents.

Condemning the policemen who effected the arrest of his father, Yakubu said if he had been around at the time, he would have taught them a bitter lesson.

According to him, but for his absence from the house at the time, the policemen could not have gone scot-free. “I would have organised machomen to beat them up before bundling them out of the house,” he bragged.

Continuing, he said “the policemen would have been given such a beating that they could not have taken my father away.

“They were lucky to have come at a time when I had gone to attend some personal issues,” he charged.

He denied that his father had a hand in the missing 77 parcels of cocaine which were seized, when the crew of MV Benjamin was arrested after the vessel had docked at the Port of Tema recently.

Yakubu said had his father been a cocaine dealer, his lifestyle would have been different from what it is today.

He warned journalists not to implicate his father in the cocaine matter, simply because he is an influential person in the society, asserting that, “he is innocent”.

A team of police officers from Accra, stormed Kumasi last week to arrest Alhaji Moro for his alleged involvement in the ongoing $230-million cocaine parcels, stolen from a vessel after it had docked at the Tema Port.

Arrested alongside Alhaji Moro was Sheriff, said to be owner of the vessel. When he appeared before the Georgina Wood Committee on Monday July 31, he threw the members into occasional fits of laughter as he delivered his well-crafted evidence.

Moro presented the structure of a giant with his clean-shaven head, while he gave his evidence. He did the unusual when he declined to swear an oath before commencing his evidence, as according to him, he always spoke the truth, but was later persuaded to affirm before his turn at the hearing.

Moro told the committee that he was a power- broker at the Manhyia Palace, but would not disclose the exact role he plays at the residence of the Asantehene.

He said Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor came to him to intervene on his behalf after ACP Kofi Boakye declared his intention to arrest him (Tagor) for his alleged knowledge about the missing cocaine.

He told the committee that Tagor wept as he pleaded for intervention.

Alhaji Moro told the committee that Tagor had explained to him that he was being hunted because of his involvement in a cocaine business.

According to Moro, when he arrived in Accra for the arranged meeting with ACP Kofi Boakye, he went with Alhaji Issah Abass, Kwabena Acheampong and Tagor.

According to him, at the meeting, Tagor started narrating his story, to the effect that some Columbians he had done business with were after his life because they felt he knew something about the missing cocaine.

“As soon as Tagor mentioned about some Columbians seriously running after his life in connection with missing cocaine, I immediately left the place because I did not want any trouble,” he said.

“My Lord, I jumped into my car and sped to Kumasi, because when someone talks about Columbian mafias, you must fear for your life,” he told the committee, adding, “Madam I did not waste time at all, I sped away because I value my life.”

Alhaji Moro, at a point during his evidence, held the shoulders of the counsel to the committee who was sitting next to him so tightly that the counsel, Mrs. Dadson had to complain, “Alhaji you are pushing me down, please can you leave me alone?”

When he was asked to give his statement, Alhaji Moro refused, saying since he was not a criminal, he would not write any statement.

The committee made him understand that it was not a court, but a fact-finding committee. When Tagor appeared two days after Alhaji Moro’s evidence, he said Alhaji had told a pack of lies to the committee and that any smart person could easily decipher that Alhaji had lied.

Tagor said he knew Alhaji Moro when he was growing up in Kumasi, because Alhaji was a popular person in the Garden City.

“My Lord, Alhaji Moro was a popular person in our youthful days and we learnt that he went to dig a grave and a ghost gave him a slap. That is why his face is swollen and disfigured,” Tagor told the committee.