Court takes swipe at state attorneys for poor handling of narcotic cases

The Accra Circuit Court yesterday took a swipe at state attorneys for their sluggish attitude towards the handling and prosecution of serious narcotic cases at the court.

The court said such poor conduct portrayed the wrong impression that the state was not interested in the prosecution of cases involving a huge quantum of narcotics.

The court, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri, a High Court Judge, who was sitting as an additional Circuit Court judge, expressed the concern at the trial of two Ghanaians who appeared before the court yesterday for attempting to facilitate the shipment of 5,880 kilogrammes of cocaine from Bolivia to Burkina Faso.

Alexander Kofi Baah, a businessman and farmer, and Shahad Iddrisu, also a businessman, are currently in the custody of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI). 

When the case was called yesterday, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr Abraham Annor told the court that he had been informed by the BNI that the investigator and the state attorney handling the case had travelled to Bolivia.

State attorney, investigator absent

His answer was not taken kindly by the court, which stated that in the absence of the state attorney assigned to handle the case, the Attorney-General’s Department should have asked another attorney to represent the state.

“Looking at the quantum of 5,880 kg of cocaine, if those handling the case have travelled to Bolivia, the A-G’s Department should have assigned another state attorney to come and represent the state.

“If it were one wrap of Indian hemp, state attorneys would come to the court and say it is a non-bailable offence and call for the accused persons to be remanded.

“This portrays a bad impression that we are not serious as a country in tackling serious narcotic issues,” Mr Justice Obiri stated.

The court, therefore, stood the case down for 30 minutes for DSP Annor to call the BNI to enquire about the state attorney assigned to the case.

It also ordered both the prosecution and counsel for the accused persons to immediately serve the A-G’s Department with a hearing notice for another state attorney to be assigned to handle the case.

Charge

Baah and Iddrissu, who was an officer of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), have been charged with two counts of conspiracy and engaging in prohibited business relating to narcotics.

They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Facts

The facts are that Baah lives at Adentan in Accra, while Iddrisu, who had worked with the Customs Division of the GRA but is now a businessman, lives at Mataheko in Accra.

In 2014, Baah is said to have visited a friend in Tema, where he met Iddrisu, who was introduced to Baah as a businessman dealing in different products, including ethanol alcohol.

When Iddrisu got to know that Baah spoke fluent Spanish, he requested Baah’s assistance to travel with him to Brazil to do business. He also wanted Baah to be his interpreter.

Baah is said to have told Iddrisu that he (Baah) had a friend by name Carlos Alberto Reyes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and he would introduce Iddrisu to that friend so that they could do business together.

Baah told Iddrisu that Carlos was into organic fertiliser production, a fact which delighted Iddrisu and he expressed a desire to travel to Bolivia. 

The two accused persons then travelled to Bolivia to meet Carlos.

They stayed in Santa Cruz for three days and later returned to Ghana. On March 4, 2015, the Bolivian authorities arrested Carlos, his nephew, his wife and a friend on a premises where about 5,880 kg of cocaine concealed in 840 sacks of fertiliser was seized.

Investigations indicated that the consignment was bound to be shipped to Burkina Faso and was to have been received by the two accused persons and others who are yet to be apprehended.