THE MANAGER of British Airways at the Kotoka International Airport and four others standing trial at an Accra Circuit Court on drug-related offences have been discharged for want of prosecution.
The accused persons are Kelvin Sarpong-Boateng, a travel and tour operator; Eric Owusu Manu, a Manager of British Airways at KIA; Daniel Clottey, an Aircraft Technician; Frank Bruno, a Profiler at KIA; and Daniel Gyabaah, a businessman.
The judge, Eric Kyei Baffuor, after listening to submissions of both the prosecution and the defence, discharged them after observing that the accused persons had been in custody since July and there was no indication that the prosecution would soon start the trial.
It was all joy at the Cocoa Affairs premises when families of the accused persons who had stormed the court to support their relatives heard the good news which had taken them by surprise.
Immediately the court discharged them, some of the accused persons ran out of the court premises to prevent any re-arrest.
The others who remained were seen hugging their family members while weeping.
News of their discharge had come as a surprise as there was the expectation that hearing would commence yesterday.
The prosecutor, Asiamah Sampong, who was expected to start the case, informed the court that he had not received any information about the accused from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).
The prosecutor explained that when he contacted the BNI office to find out how far they had gone with investigations in the matter, he was informed that the department had requested from British security agencies, information about the accused persons, but were yet to receive feedback.
He pointed out that there was no clear time-line as to when they would receive the feedback to start with the case and therefore prayed the court to grant the accused persons bail.
Ellis Owusu Fordjour, lead counsel for the accused persons who observed that they had been in custody for almost three months, submitted that if the judge was mindful of granting them bail, then it should be a self-recognisance bail.
Following this plea, he argued that since there were no evidence against the accused persons, they should be discharged and when prosecution is ready, they would come back to answer the charges.
Mr. Sampong objected to this, saying it was a narcotic case in which the accused persons were not even entitled to bail; but he had moved for that because of the current problem of getting information from the UK.
However, the judge ruled in favour of the defence and accordingly discharged them.
The accused persons were facing four counts of conspiracy to commit an offence relating to exportation of narcotic drug, contrary to the laws of Ghana.
Their alleged five accomplices, Stephen Awua, Kofi Bamfo, and Emmanuel Owusu aka Baffuor Gyau, are currently in prison custody in the UK, while Hubert Laryea and Mohamoud Mufuti are at large.
Facts in court had indicated that between November 2010 and June 2011, the suspects operated jointly and severally to send cocaine and wee from Ghana to the UK on British Airways, using a shared responsibility method known as 'pushing'.
Each one of them allegedly played a specific role in the transaction from the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) and on the plane to Heathrow Airport where those in custody in the UK were arrested, the prosecutor averred.
Initial investigations, according to the prosecutor, revealed that on October 2010, Sarpong-Boateng recruited Clottey, Bruno and Gyabaah as 'pushers' at the Kotoka International Airport to aid and facilitate the exportation of the drugs contracted by Mahomoud Mufuti, to export eight kilogrammes of cocaine from Ghana to the UK.
He said in March 2011, Gyabaah and Owusu Manu travelled to London and met with one Nana Yaw aka Barfour Gyau or Emmanuel Owusu, who is now in prison custody in London and later stayed at Osier Crescent in London.
Their activities, according to the prosecutor, were monitored by both Ghana Security Agents and the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) of the United Kingdom.
He noted that it was through SOCA's intelligence and efficiency that the others were arrested and remanded in U.K.
The arrest of the three persons in London led to that of the five others in Ghana.
By Mary Anane
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