COP TESTIFIES IN COKE CASE

ONE of the three policemen who are standing trial at the Accra Fast Track High Court for allegedly aiding a suspect to abscond with 2,280 kilogrammes of cocaine has said the police met the fugitive cocaine owner, Sheriff Asem Dakeh, at the Kpone beach on the morning of April 26, 2006 when they went there to effect the arrest of drug dealers.
According to General Lance Corporal Dwamena Yabson, he already knew the fugitive, Dakeh, alias The Limping Man, and just as the police were about to arrive at the beach, they spotted a green Toyota Land Cruiser with tinted glass coming from the direction of the beach.
In his further caution statement, which was read to the court on Friday by a prosecution witness, Detective Inspector Justice Oppong, the accused person said as the car in which they were travelling got near the oncoming vehicle, Dakeh rolled down his glass and, on seeing him, mentioned his name.
He said when he asked Dakeh about his mission at the place that early morning, he replied that he was there to meet some business partners who had not arrived yet, so he decided to buy some fish from the beach.
“We searched his car and nothing was found in it. Therefore, Sergeant Samuel Yaw Amoah and I got into his car and he drove to Tema Community One”, he said and added that when they got to Tema, they went to the house of Dakeh.
He said when they got to the gate of the house, Sgt Amoah went inside, while he stayed behind and in less than five minutes Sgt Amoah came back.
The witness was testifying in the case in which General Lance Corporal Dwamena Yabson, General Sergeant Daniel Nyarko, General Lance Corporal Peter Bondori and Detective Sergeant Amoah, who is on the run, are accused of collecting money from the owner of the cocaine, Dakeh and allowing him (Dakeh) to abscond with the narcotic drug.
The three have been charged with two counts of engaging in prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs and corruption by a public officer.
They have pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Inspector Oppong said the accused person wrote the statement himself on September 11, 2006.
In a background to the story, the accused, who was stationed at the Community One police station but lived at the Tema New Town barracks, said he knew Sgt Amoah because they were on the same block but he did not know Nyarko.
He said he had been to the Kpone police station before during one of the festivals of the people, while he got to know Dakeh at Community One because he used to come to a deceased policeman called Sgt Martey to bail some people.
He said on that day, about 4 am, he got up to urinate when a fisherman came to tell him that some people carrying stolen goods on the high seas were about to offload them at the Tema New Town beach.
“From the way the man was panting, I thought of assisting and asked what goods were being carried,” he said and added that the fisherman told him that the occupants of the vessel carrying the goods were wielding AK 47 rifles.
The accused person said he went to the office and informed Sgt Amoah, who went for another officer from the New Town police station and then went to the beach, but on reaching there, they learnt that the goods had been sent to the Kpone beach.
He said at Kpone, he went to the charge office for reinforcement and two officers were detailed to join them and together they picked another taxi and headed for the beach, where they met Dakeh.
According to Cpl Yabson’s caution statement, one day he was on his way to the office when a Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) official told him that the Regional BNI Director was looking for him and when he obliged, he was asked whether he had arrested some cocaine suspects at the Sakumono beach, to which he replied in the negative.
The accused person said the BNI Director also asked him whether he knew Dakeh, to which he replied in the affirmative.
He said he did not inform his boss about the interrogation because he thought it was true.
In his caution statement, Sgt Nyarko denied joining any group to make any arrest.
However, he said on April 26, 2006, he had just returned from guard duty when Amoah asked him to join the operation during which Yabson took a taxi to Kpone, while he (Nyarko) and Amoah walked along the beach.
Another accused person, Bondori, whose statement was tendered, said he was at the Kpone police station on April 26, 2006 when the station officer informed him that some policemen from Tema NewTown were in town and needed assistance to arrest some people.
He said on their way to the beach one of the Tema New Town policemen asked him and another officer to take position at a place and wait but they did not return, so he went back to the office.
Meanwhile, Inspector Oppong gave an account of how the security agencies had information about the operation of the MV Benjamin and how it was intercepted at the Tema port.
According to him, it was some fishermen who alerted the security agencies, because when they attempted going near the vessel some guns were fired and so they suspected foul play.
He said it was the fishermen who first reported the incident to Sgt Amoah, who in turn informed Yabson and Nyarko and together they went to the Paradise beach.
At the beach, he said, they heard that the cargo had been sent to Kpone beach, where they met three cars, a Daewoo saloon car, a green Toyota Land Cruiser and a van in which the alleged cocaine had been packed.
He said Dakeh was in charge of the green car, while “Killer” drove the van and the two vehicles were later retrieved.
Inspector Oppong said Nyarko, Yabson and the three fishermen joined Dakeh and Killer to Community 5 and it was on their way that Bondori crossed them to arrest them, but Sgt Amoah was said to have convinced him to abandon the idea.
He said while in Tema, Dakeh’s car went straight to his house while the van went elsewhere and Dakeh gave the police an unspecified amount after settling the fishermen with $10,000.