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Tue, 27 Jan 2015 General News

Amoateng Trial Adjourned Again

By Daily Guide
Amoateng Trial Adjourned Again
27 JAN 2015 LISTEN

The  trial of the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkoranza North, Eric Amoateng, for allegedly acquiring a Ghanaian passport fraudulently, which was expected to resume yesterday after the Christmas break, had to be adjourned again.

This was after the Accra Circuit Court presided over by Mrs Vivian Ellen Amoah was informed that the prosecutor,

DSP Aidan Dery, was indisposed and could not make it to court.

Amoateng was in court with his lawyer, Charles Puozuing, but the investigator, ASP Kwaku Lodonu, who was supposed to be cross-examined, was not in court.

The prosecuting officer at the last hearing told the court that ASP Lodonu was indisposed but no reasons were given for his inability to be in court yesterday.

The trial judge consequently adjourned the case to February 10, 2015.

The investigator said that the accused person acquired the said passport while serving time in the US.

ASP Kwaku Lodonu stated that even though the former MP had told him that he downloaded a form on the internet during his incarceration for heroin related offences, investigations revealed that passport forms were not available on the net.

The prosecutor in the case also admitted that 'nobody knows how the passport came to be in the possession of the accused person.'

The investigator in his cross-examination said on August 5, 2014 he was informed about a case of fraudulent acquisition of passport by his superiors at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

He said he was informed that the suspect had arrived from the USA and that the suspect was Amoateng who had in his possession a passport with number H2347780.

Furthermore, he said the suspect had been taken to the Narcotics Control Board so he went there and took him to the CID Headquarters where his statement was taken, and tendered the statement to the court in evidence.

The police officer said in the course of his investigations, it was revealed that the said passport belonged to one Barbara Inkum who had applied for it but never got it.

The investigator said a certain Frank Anane, who is the immigration officer who helped the lady to acquire the passport, said he lost touch with the said lady so he called her mother but she also failed to see him for the passport.

According to him, the suspect told him that a certain Ghanaian prison inmate called Mohammed helped him to acquire the said passport and that he and Mohammed were released together but he did not know which way he went.

Barbara Inkum, owner of the passport said to have been used by the accused person to travel to Ghana from the United States, had testified at the last hearing.

The witness, a 25-yearold lady, told the court that she had never seen the passport said to be hers because after giving her particulars to a gentleman called Frank to process her passport for her, she never saw him again.

Issaka Lan-Gani, Assistant Commissioner of Immigration at the KotokaInternational Airport (KIA), was the first witness in the case.

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