VESSEL OWNER SPEAKS

THE owner of the MV Benjamin, Joseph Kojo Dawson, in a statement to the police, has said that the vessel was chartered by Atico Fisheries Limited, a company owned by the fugitive cocaine baron, Sheriff Asem Dakeh, to tow a vessel from Conakry, Guinea, to Ghana.
He said the charter agreement was endorsed on February 6, 2006 by lawyers for Dashment Shipping Limited, owners of the vessel which was allegedly used to import 77 parcels of cocaine into the country.
Dawson’s statement, which was dated May 5, 2006, was tendered in court yesterday by Inspector Charles Adabah when he testified for the prosecution in the case in which the vessel owner and five crew members are being tried at the Accra Fast Track High Court.
The rest of the accused persons, Pak Bok Sil, a Korean; Isaac Arhin and Philip Bruce Arhin, both Ghanaians; and Cui Xian Li and Luo Yin Xing, both Chinese, are alleged to have played various roles in the importation of the substance.
They have been charged with various counts of using a property for narcotic offences, engaging in prohibited business relating to narcotics and possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
Each of them has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and have been remanded in prison custody.
Dawson said the vessel was bought on a hire purchase basis but he did not know who hired the crew. He said he went to Takoradi, where the vessel was docked, to tell Isaac Arhin not to sail it because certain formalities had to be completed before it could sail.
According to him, he did not know the vessel had sailed from the Takoradi Port because of the formalities, adding that he was arrested when the vessel was impounded at the Tema Port.
He said on his arrest, he called Sheriff and informed him that they needed to pay for the formality, for which reason he (Sheriff) should come. But Sheriff said he was indisposed and rather sent his driver with money but the driver was arrested.
Led in evidence by Mr William Kpobi, a Principal State Attorney, Inspector Adabah said he visited the vessel at the Tema Port and, on locating it, he realised that its original paint and the paint where its name was written differed because the vessel’s name had been written with a fresh paint.
He said he also visited the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) in Tema to find out about the ownership of the vessel.
The witness said investigations revealed that the vessel was formerly called MV Duk One 63 but it was on April 20, 2006 registered as the MV Benjamin, with Dashment Shipping Limited, of which Dawson was the managing director, as the owners.
Inspector Adabah said the charter agreement showed that Dawson was aware of the vessel’s 49-day voyage which brought the cocaine into the country because all expenses were paid by Dashment Shipping Limited.
He also tendered Bok Sil’s statement which was given on April 30, 2006 in which the accused person said he knew the original owner of the vessel to be Mr Bell, now domiciled in Las Palmas, Bolivia.