POLICE INVESTIGATOR CONCLUDES EVIDENCE

THE police investigator in the cocaine case involving Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor, and Alhaji Issa Abass has concluded his evidence-in-chief after the Fast Track High Court had played the compact disc (CD) which had the secret voice recording of the accused persons.
Detective Inspector Charles Adaba, the seventh witness for the prosecution, will be crossed-examined today by the defence counsel.
The secret voice recording, according to the police investigator, was requested for by the voice and speech experts in the United Kingdom to assist them to ascertain the true voices of the five persons who participated in a conversation relating to the missing 77 parcels of cocaine in ACP Kofi Boakye’s house.
The subject of the recorded conversation is the result of the trial of Tagor, who is facing four counts of conspiracy, engaging in prohibited business related to narcotic drugs, buying of narcotic drugs and supplying narcotic drugs, and Alhaji Issa Abbas, who faces two counts of conspiracy and supply of narcotic drugs.
They have pleaded not guilty to all the counts and have been refused bail by the court, presided over by Mr Justice Jones Dotse, a Court of Appeal judge sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge.
The court overruled an application by Mr William Kpobi, a Principal State Attorney, that the CD containing the secret voice recordings should be played in camera, since he did not want its content to be heard by the public.
Counsel for Tagor, Mr Ellis Owusu-Fordjour, objected to the application on the grounds that since the main tape, which was the subject of the trial, had been played to the hearing of the public, there was no need to hear the voice recording in camera.
Detective Inspector Adaba said Tagor refused to give a statement after his arrest, after insisting that he wanted to do so in the presence of his counsel.
He said when Tagor’s counsel was contacted on telephone, he stated that he was outside Accra and would like to be present before his client’s statement was taken. But that did not materialise.
Abass, he noted, gave his statement in the presence of an independent witness.
The witness said his investigations revealed that ACP Boakye invited the accused persons and others to his house to find out from them who was peddling rumours that he (ACP Boakye) had gone to steal 77 parcels of cocaine from the MV Benjamin at the Tema Port.
He said the fishing vessel used by the fugitive drug baron, Sheriff Asem Dakeh, berthed at the breakwaters of the Tema Port with the substance on April 25, 2006 but before the security agencies could get on board, 76 of the said parcels had been taken away.
Detective Inspector Adaba said his investigations further revealed that the 76 parcels were stolen by a group of cocaine dealers who turned out to be the accused persons.
He said it was based on that fact that ACP Boakye invited the accused persons and the others to his house to question them about the whereabouts of the missing cocaine, since his name was being peddled in town that he had gone for the cocaine.
According to the witness, the accused persons, during their meeting with ACP Boakye, openly confessed to their past dealings in cocaine but denied having spread rumours that ACP Boakye had stolen the 76 parcels of cocaine.
“In the end, all of them conspired to look for the people who went to steal the 76 parcels of cocaine, since the quantity was such that one person could not have gone to steal it,” Detective Inspector Adaba said, and added that after finding the culprits, the suspects hoped to get their share.
In a brief cross-examination by Mr Owusu-Fordjour, the witness said he took a statement from Chris Kumi Asher whose name came up in the conversation recorded in ACP Boakye’s house, after interrogating him, but said he did not remember saying under oath that Asher had said that Tagor’s driver had bought a house from him.