-Officers Demand $200,000 and play hide and Seek

-Ex-President Kufuor’s nephew Arrested

By: Alhaji Bature Iddrisu

The Ghana Police Service has been hit by yet another cocaine scandal with links to the nephew of former President Kufuor and a possible underhand dealing and attempted cover up from some officers of the Police Command who are said to be demanding a whopping $200,000 from the suspects.

Almost two weeks after the arrest of the suspects, the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) is yet to test and confirm the substance as cocaine. This is in gross contravention of the Narcotics Control Law.

Credible information available to The Al-Hajj indicates that three people were arrested by some Police officers at a location near East Legon two weeks ago (Friday March 2) while three others absconded.

The three suspects nabbed are one Aryeetey, Owusu and Oweriku a.k.a Owura. All of them are said to be domiciled at America House near East Legon. Owerilku, who is believed to be in his early thirties is said to be a nephew of former President Kufuor.

Investigations conducted by the Al-Hajj indicate that the three cocaine suspects were arrested in a Mercedes Benz car and sent to Madina police station. According to police sources, the police allegedly demanded $200,000 from the suspects to provide them an escape route. However, when this paper contacted the Madina District Crime Officer last Monday he denied knowledge of any such arrests; this was further corroborated by his Deputy, one Superintendent Amos.

On the other hand, our checks at the Madina Police Station revealed two parked Mercedes Benz cars, one with registration number GW 6301 T and the other without a registration. The owners of these cars however; are yet to be identified. The Al-Hajj, trusting the source of our information on Tuesday March 13th 2012 persisted and followed up with another enquiry from the two officers at the Madina Police station who, in spite of our strong contention, insisted; there was no such case at the station.

However, things took a different turn when, two days later, these same officers admitted that, indeed there was such arrest, but that, the matter was on Wednesday 14th March 2012 taken-over by the Accra Regional Police command. When the paper contacted the Accra Regional Police Crime Officer, he said such cases are handled by his Deputy, one Superintendent Apenteng. Superintendent Apenteng on his part admitted on Friday, 16th March, 2012 that such a case from the Madina Police is before him and that; one Inspector Suglo is the one pursuing the case. He added that, they were awaiting officials of NACOB to conduct a field test on the substance by last Saturday and suggested, the paper comes back the following week for full details.

What is not clear is why the case was transferred from Madina to the Regional office. The suspects were arrested in East Legon and sent to Madina when there are police stations at East Legon and Legon.

Meanwhile, these aforementioned police stations are all under Nima Divisional Police Command and as expected, the case should have been sent there. Cocaine scandals in the police service are not new. It may be recalled that during the last regime under President J.A. Kufour, several parcels of cocaine at the Police CID Headquarters suddenly turned into ‘konkonte’. And just recently, some parcels of cocaine were alleged to have turned into washing soda, the matter of which is still before the law courts. We shall keep our readers updated.