Court declines bail for an accused person on remand

Accra, Jan. 5, GNA - An Accra Circuit Court on Tuesday declined a bail application by Asirifi Gogeh, an accused person on remand who was caught smoking dried leaves suspected be Indian Hemp in police cells.

Gogeh pleaded not guilty to using narcotic drugs.
A Close Circuit TV(CCTV) installed at the Police headquarters cells exposed Gogeh.

Mr. C.K. Hoeyi, Gogeh's Counsel, in applying for bail alleged that his client had been on remand for about nine years for an alleged robbery and his warrant had expired.

Counsel said on the offence of using a narcotic drug, his client was entitled to bail adding the minimum sentence under the law was five years.

When the court challenged counsel to furnish it with the law that compelled the court to grant bail, he was unable to do so.

However, he insisted to produce the relevant law at the next adjourned date.

The court adjourned the matter for a fortnight.
On January 14, 2009, Gogeh who was on remand at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons for robbery, was detained at the Police headquarters cells to appear before the court the following day.

While in cells, the CCTV installed at the cells captured Gogeh smoking a stick of dried leaves suspected to be Indian Hemp.

When he was searched another wrapper of dried leaves was found in his pocket.

Gogeh said he brought the dried leaves from Nsawam.

The leaves were forwarded to the Police Forensic Laboratory for examination.

GNA