Story: Stephen Sah
OSEI HAD TRACES OF COCAINE IN URINE

IT has now been established that traces of cocaine were found in the urine sample of Thomas Osei, the man at the centre of President J.A. Kufuor’s car crash.
Counsel for the accused person, Mr Kwame Boafo Akuffo, disclosed this at the Accra Fast Track High Court yesterday in his renewed application for bail which was refused.
Osei is facing six counts of use of narcotic drugs, dangerous driving, negligently causing harm, driving under the influence of alcohol and failing to give way to a Presidential convoy.
According to the court, the narcotic charge still stood, irrespective of its quantity, and as far as the court was concerned it had the apprehension that when granted bail, the accused person would not appear to stand trial.
Consequently, it adjourned the case to January 17, 2008 for hearing.
Mr Akuffo had argued that at the last sitting the court refused to grant bail to his client because the prosecution was still investigating the matter and said now that the prosecution was ready for the hearing, the bail application ought to be reconsidered.
Counsel said granting Osei bail would be in line with provisions in the Constitution which stipulated that all offences were bailable.
According to counsel, the minute nature of traces of cocaine in his client’s urine sample enjoined the court to exercise its responsibility to admit Osei to bail.
“The manner in which the sample was taken was not proper. We have our reservations about how the urine sample was taken but we reserve our case and ask for bail,” he said.
However, Ms Gertrude Aikins, the acting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), responded that while traffic offences were bailable, offences regarding narcotics were not and for that reason Osei could not be admitted to bail.
Dismissing the application for bail, the court, presided over by Mr Justice E.K. Ayebi, said counsel failed to address the court on matters that related to bail but rather raised substantive issues for the trial.
He said the accused was not only facing traffic charges but narcotic charges as well.
Osei was discharged by the court on Thursday, December 20, 2007 after the prosecution had filed a nolle prosequi (unwilling to prosecute) but he was re-arrested when he stepped out of the court.
The court was to give its ruling on an application for bail made by counsel for the accused person at the last sitting but that had to be abandoned because of the latest development.
Osei was first arraigned before the Motor Court on November 16, 2007 and remanded following a request by Chief Inspector Dora Seiwaah, then the prosecutor, to the court to remand him for investigations to be completed.
The facts of the case are that around 11.30 a.m. on November 14, 2007, Osei, who was driving a Mercedes Benz SE 500 saloon car in the inner lane along the Liberation Link from the direction of Aviance towards the 37 Military Hospital, drove into the rear side of the President’s vehicle, in spite of the fact that other motorists had been stopped to allow the President’s convoy to pass.
The prosecutor said the impact of the crash forced the President’s vehicle to turn around, hit a light pole and, in the process, fell on its right side and landed on a VW Golf saloon car
All the vehicles involved in the accident got damaged, while the drivers sustained various degrees of injury and were rushed to the 37 Military Hospital for treatment.
The driver of the President’s car and the driver of the VW saloon car were treated and discharged, while Osei was admitted for treatment.
The President escaped unhurt.
Investigations showed that Osei was driving under the influence of alcohol.