Crime & Punishment of Tuesday, 4 March 2008

Source: GNA

Court adjourns Atukpai wulomo wee case

Accra, March 4, GNA - An Accra Circuit Court on Tuesday adjourned the case in which Numo Oku, Wulomo of Atukpai and two others are involved in attempted exportation of 178 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa (wee) hidden in 10 plywood boards.

The court granted an application for adjournment by Superintendent of Police Mr J.K. Abraham to enable the Police to complete their investigations into the matter and hunt Numo Oku who is at large. Anthony Okin, a welder and Bawa Salifu, a forwarding agent, whose pleas were not taken are being held for possessing narcotic drugs without authority. They were remanded into police custody to reappear on March 18.

The three accused persons allegedly attempted to export the drugs through Aviance Cargo Village in Accra to the United Kingdom. The prosecution told the court that on February 6, this year, Okin and Numo Oku went to Aviance Cargo Village to export 10 plywood boards to the United Kingdom.

The prosecution said they gave the 10 plywood boards to Salifu and after scanning at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), it was detected that there were some foreign materials hidden in them.

It said when officials of Narcotics Control Board opened one of the plywood boards in the presence of the accused persons six slabs of dried leaves suspected to be cannabis were retrieved.

When the other nine plywood boards were also opened they were found to contain the same quantity of drugs.

The prosecutor said Okin and Salifu were arrested but Numo Oku escaped.

The dried leaves were forwarded to the Ghana Standards Board for analysis.