Enter Simon The Sorcerer

Poor Francis Poku. What will our former chief of national security do now? The man’s problems seem to know no end.

His decades-old career in the secret service came to an abrupt end one morning not long ago, when police and other security operatives in battle gear and armed to the teeth, gums and molars raided his residence.

The great huntsman had suddenly become the hunter’s quarry and the man who had been even more powerful than Kwame Mpianim subsequently fled incognito into exile in London.

I had always seen old Francis as a Christian and a Catholic gentleman (which for all you know, he is), yet so suspiciously far, far cooler than cucumber.

So cool indeed some say, that anyone with an understanding of what makes the best operatives in the intelligence industry tick, would have known that his is the kind of coolness which easily belies a deadly, calculated, scheming ruthlessness beyond the comprehension of even a psychologist’s mind.

A man with an almost limitless budget, ample human and technical resources and the skills needed to create powerful people and sacrifice them if need be.

A man who knew better than most, the full meaning of the concept of mass media and politics and where to hit it off with journalists in achieving this agenda or that other one.

Now, some senior pro-government intelligence operatives are quietly gunning for  Francis, in the firm belief that with the acquittal on appeal of Tagor and Abass, a re-opening of the MV Benjamin case has become necessary and old Francis just might be the man Mills needs to help him make sense of one of the most bizarre cocktail of cock tales in the history of drug smuggling worldwide.

Nah, wait, Jomo. Let me begin this properly: My average letter, as you may have noticed, is typically a rambling mix of everything about nothing, but surely you have not forgotten the slight difference with these previous two: “Who stole the Benjamin coke?” and “Until this coke party is over..!”

I warned you in both, that the case of the Bermuda Triangle-style disappearance of a big ship load of cocaine off the coast of Tema, was far from over until it was all well and truly over, didn’t I?

The two men who were arrested, tried and convicted for allegedly importing the shipload of coke, on the basis of purported evidence on a controversial tape recording of a conversation in which they were heard conspiring to deal in “goods” interpreted here by the prosecution to mean coke, have been acquitted and discharged on appeal!

That takes us right back to the spot before square one, old chap: If Kwabena Tagor and Alhaji Issa Abass are innocent, who stole the darned coke and where is it?

Who imported the ship load and who spirited it away across the Atlantic like the handiwork of Simon the Sorcerer?

The two men were charged with engaging in a prohibited business related to narcotics drugs. Great criminal charge that one if you ask me: What business?

What narcotic drugs? That was like seeking a conviction for alleged murder in a case without a deceased victim, no?

On the other hand and to feed the confusion even further, those whose voices were heard on the tape appeared to belong to a fraternity of sorts and mention was indeed made of “the business” and “the goods.

” This cannot constitute direct evidence or a “confession” as the prosecution argued but hey, there is such a thing as circumstantial evidence, isn’t there? We might ask the judge who convicted the two.

It has been suggested that we go all the way back to the very beginning and pick up the plot all over again and that is where old Francis comes in:

There are a trillion questions related to this case which some people now insist Francis and those who were his operatives must answer.

President Mills has taken direct oversight responsibility for the work of the Narcotics Control Board. Will he go after the vanishing ship and its multi-million dollar cargo?

If he does will his strategy only send him running round and round and around in circles and returning to the same spot again and again, all over again? Not if he can get some people to talk, some say.

Public hearings of an enquiry into the financial operations of the national secretariat of the Ghana at 50 anniversary celebrations last year and the secretariat’s transactions with the Coordinating Councils of all 10 administrative regions is underway and oh, boy..! Ample evidence is emerging of appalling documentation, sloppy record keeping and questionable accounting procedures.

Another new political administration. Another long peek into the accounting books of the previous administration. Another round of accusations of vindictiveness on the part of the new government.

The challenge to the new administration is to ensure that the much touted rule of law overrides every other consideration in all investigations. The public should be satisfied that there is no political persecution involved.

I personally doubt if any individual will be thrown in jail. A vigilant press, civil society and human rights groups will make sure of that oh yes but if some individuals have stolen our money for Heaven’s sake it is only fair that we retrieve the loot.

This is a serious human rights issue: When people in public office steal our money to illegally enrich themselves, so many people are denied access to the basic needs of live.

Our police are in a battle to the death with blood thirsty robbers, amid accusations that they have adopted a shoot-to-kill-the–bandit policy in the war against the brigands.

 Mousah Tiegoro Kamara is a top member of the government in Guinea. He recently scandalized human rights activists around the world with his call for the burning alive of armed robbers. Kamara argued that the prisons were full and it were best to kill those who were killing others anyway.

Then there was the case of bizarre public amputation of mobile phones thieves in Somalia. A BBC correspondent joined a crowd of people who watched machete-wielding masked men hacking off the left legs of the thieves who screamed and continued to scream long after the amputation 

I was in Kenya early this year when one newspaper devoted nearly an entire issue to a publication of the pictures of more than 100 young men who had disappeared in a matter of weeks .

It was discovered they were members of robbery gangs who had been secretly rounded up and zapped by the police who found themselves fighting a losing battle with robbers in and around Nairobi. 

Scared that robbery could spiral into an uncontrollable epidemic, people around us are adopting shocking and drastic measures to uproot the banditry. If the truth be told ours is already an emergency.

By George Sydney Abugri