MV Benjamin Re-Probe: Otumfuo & Others Get Another Chance

The Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood’s failure to locate the
whereabouts of the 77 parcels of cocaine which were brought into the country
by a shipping vessel, MV Benjamin, but mysteriously disappeared from the
Tema Habour, with the empty ship set ablaze, is back.

President John Evans Atta Mills yesterday, in his State of the Nation
Address, announced plans to reinvestigate the disappearance of the huge
volumes of the drugs, in addition to the 67 Prampram Cocaine parcels which
also disappeared from the Police Exhibit Store at the CID Headquarters in
Accra, leading to the setting up of the Hon. Kojo Armah Committee in 2008,
which also failed to locate the drugs.

The re-opening of the two high profile cocaine cases, especially the MV
Benjamin, means that ACP Kofi Boakye, Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor and many
others will, get another day to retell their stories, this time to
Presidential Commission of Enquiry.

Persons such as the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu and some of his inner
circle officers who were said to have made some interventions on behalf of
some people linked to the disappearance but were not called during the
sitting of the Georgina Wood Committee, will also take their turn to redeem
their dented image when the committee starts sitting.

Mrs. Wood who sat behind President Mills yesterday, had a stern look on her
face as the President talked about the subject. Mr. Kofi Boakye, sometime
last year, announced publicly on Radio Gold, following a publication of a
secret tape by The Herald, that he will co-operate with another
investigation into the matter.

President Mills told Parliament that his decision to reopen the case was
necessitated by revelations made in the leaked United States diplomatic
cables published by the whistleblower website, Wikileaks.

“In the wake of recent startling revelations about the unacceptable extent
to which Ghana was used as a major link in the drug trade, I have decided
that a full-scale investigation into the disappearance of cocaine from the
Police vault, as well as the 77 parcels of cocaine which entered Ghana’s
territorial waters aboard the MV Benjamin vessel and mysteriously got
missing, should be re-opened”.

He said although there had been some investigations into the disappearance
of the drugs, they were inconclusive as the administrative enquiry which was
chaired by now Chief Justice, then a Supreme Court Judge, failed to locate
the whereabouts of the drugs, and the culprits.

The re-opening of the investigation is part of his “pledge to wage a
concerted and relentless war against the drug menace”.

Two years down the line, he came confidently to say to the people of Ghana
that the government has acquitted itself very well in this regard, adding:
“I have no regrets subjecting myself to body checks at the Kotoka
International Airport.

It is the surest way to lead by example as well as energize the NACOB
officials not to allow any officials or persons purporting to be government
officials to bully them”.

President Mills assured the House that the government will not relent in its
“fight against narcotics trade, and believe that the majority of Ghanaians
are happy not to be waking up to the daily stories cocaine here, cocaine
there and cocaine everywhere.”

He pledged to make Ghana an unattractive destination for the narcotic trade,
and will collaborate fully with cross-border and other foreign operatives to
flush out the drug barons and other couriers from the country.

The address was his third State of the Nation, and it was dubbed: “Raising
Ghana to the next level.”

Mr. Kofi Boakye was in April last year quoted by this paper on the
mysterious disappearance of the 77 sacks of cocaine from the shipping vessel
MV Benjamin. He was caught on an audio tape referring to Issa Abbas and
Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor, as “known drug barons”.

He was narrating his side of the cocaine scandal to his friends in far away
Europe. ACP Boakye alleged the Kufuor-led government’s complicity in the
scandal, with a revelation that even though ex-cocaine-convicts Issa Abass
and Tagor are known drug barons, they were good pals of the previous regime.

Mr. Boakye who now heads the Police Training School at Tesano in Accra, said
that Isa Abass, in particular, supplied police vehicles to the NPP-led
government whilst Tagor was a very good friend to the administration.

It was his first-ever public comment on the scandal which threw him out of
job for a long time.

He told his friends that the brouhaha about his meeting with Isa Abass,
Tagor, Kwabena Acheampong, Alhaji Moro and the rest, was uncalled for
because as then head of police operations, he met regularly with such
miscreants with the view of getting information to nail them.

He said: “…I want to assure you people that I meet armed robbers, and they
know I meet armed robbers.

They give me money and I put armed robbers in hotels so that we can use them
to arrest armed robbers”.

“Atta Ayi was arrested because armed robbers gave me information. I go to
prisons, take remand prisoners and work with them, so what was different
from meeting the cocaine dealers who are known to the system”, he wondered.

Kofi Boakye said “Issa was a supplier of police vehicles for government;
Tagor was a good friend of the establishment. So even if I want to do
cocaine, I won’t be doing it with these people”.

He alleged that there are other nationals in the country who are also
involved in the drug trade who could have been better partners than Tagor
and Issa Abbas.

“The only thing is that cocaine came; information was given to the
government that this is cocaine, but they didn’t do anything about it, and
when I decided to enquire, they sent people to tape me. Please, go back and
everybody listen to the tape; where did I go wrong”? he asked his audience
rhetorically.

Deep throat sources close to Mr. Boakye say that he has since the cocaine
scandal, which almost ended his enviable police career, been looking for an
opportunity to vent his spleen, and expose some bigwigs he claims are
involved in the drug trade, but has constantly been prevailed upon to hold
his horses.

ACP Kofi Boakye’s acclaimed interdiction was revoked by ex-President Kufuor
on the eve of his exit from office, but it took lots of back-and-forth to
get him back to wear the police uniform.