Tagor Protests Against Second Tape

Kwabena Amaning, also known as Tagor, yesterday protested against tendering of the second tape which was surreptitiously recorded by Detective Inspector Charles Adaba, the investigator in the case.

Nana Asante Bediatuo, counsel for Tagor prayed the court not to allow the tape to be tendered in evidence by Inspector Adaba after the witness had completed his evidence in chief and wanted to tender the second tape in evidence.

Counsel for Tagor told the court that the recording should not be tendered because it was a breach of the privacy of the accused person, Tagor, who was in the dock with Alhaji Issah Abass for allegedly dealing in cocaine.

He told the court presided over by Justice Jones Dotse that there were alternative lawful means which the witness could have used to tape the accused persons if he wanted their voices given to voice experts to compare to the Kofi Boakye tape, to identify their voices.

Getrude Aikins, the Acting Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP) on the other hand, was of the view that the privacy of an individual was not absolute in cases where the privacy of the security of individuals was at stake or in the case where the information bordered on the security of the nation.

According to her, the means of the information was not important as it was relevant, and added that the Adaba tape was only meant to help the court identify the Kofi Boakye tape.

Concluding his evidence, the witness said after secretly recording the accused persons, he sent the tape by courier service to the United Kingdom and later followed up after seeking the services of an Akan linguistic expert who had gone to the UK and translated the Kofi Boakye tape for the voice experts.

According to Adaba, the second accused person, Issah Abbas, allegedly stated on the tape that he was once arrested by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) when he was on his way to the bank to cash some money.

The investigator said he decided to probe into the statement and discovered that Issah was arrested by the BNI when he was going to the SG-SSB Bank at the Ministries to have $495,000 transferred into his account.

In addition, he (investigator) said his probe into activities in the underworld revealed that drug dealers had their own terminologies like “goods” to refer to cocaine, that they often used, just like the word “key” referred to a kilogramme of cocaine.

The witness further told the court that he had looked into the allegations by the accused persons that “goods” were supplied to a certain Mama Tess and found out that the said Mama Tess had a furniture shop off Spintex Road called “Platinum Furniture Ventures” but had traveled abroad and had since not returned.

On MV Benjamin, the vessel which ferried the 76 missing parcels into the country, he said he had visited and realised that it had been set on fire and hired from Joseph Kojo Dawson Dashment Company by a fugitive, Asem Dake, a.k.a “limping man' or “Sheriff”.

He then proceeded to say that the conversation at the house of ACP Kofi Boakye, then the Director For Operations of the Ghana Police Service with the accused persons and others, was under a neem tree.

Adaba then went on to describe the positions of each and every individual but the defense team of Tagor and Issah protested on the grounds what he was saying was based on hearsay because he was not there but that argument was overruled by the trial judge.

Tagor is facing four counts of conspiracy to commit crime, doing prohibited business relating to narcotics, buying and supply of narcotics while Issah is facing two counts of conspiracy to commit crime besides buying and supply of narcotic drugs.

The matter has been adjourned to March 28, 2007 for a ruling on whether the Adaba tape should be tendered or not.