Drama at Tamara’s

... As she engages police in a scuffle

The Tamara's Restaurant, off the 37 Military Hospital/Achimota Motorway, was a scene of a drama yesterday when an aspiring Independent Member of Parliament for the Akuapem North Constituency in the Eastern Region physically attacked police officers detailed to provide protection for bailiffs who had gone to execute a court order.

The aspiring MP, Tamara Howe Botsio, alias 'Lady Tamara,' in a typical Hollywood movie style, pushed aside the policemen and the bailiffs and drove away in her Land Rover jeep, which a court had ordered to be seized and auctioned to defray a ¢30 million debt she owed one Elvis Dutse.

She shouted defiantly: “You are not taking this car away!”

It all started about 6: 00am after the two bailiffs, accompanied by two police officers, arrived at the restaurant to execute the order.

They were informed that Lady Tamara was still asleep. Determined to carry out their assignment, the men decided to wait for the once famous London pub dancer to wake up.

But Lady Tamara ordered that the gate be locked and the keys brought to her.

After almost two hours of waiting, the officers and the bailiffs signaled to the house attendants to open the gate for them to leave, but Tamara, who had woken up, said she could not locate the keys.

This dragged on until Dutse, the plaintiff in the court suit against Tamara, arrived with a tow truck to take the vehicle away, but found the gate shut with the police officers locked in the compound.

At last, when the officers attempted to break the lock, Lady Tamara yielded to the pressure and called for the keys, but insisted that she was not allowing her car to be towed.

Fuming in a combat-ready posture, she pushed the officers away and demanded to know their identification numbers, whem she found out they had no such numbers.

“In fact, you do not have identification number. Where are your police numbers? I will not allow you to take this car away. I need an officer to identify you because you can be armed robbers…. How do I know that you are not armed robbers?”

She demanded of the law enforcers.

But after the police gave her the go-ahead to call their headquarters, Tamara could not get the call through and delayed the officers for another hour.

When they could not wait any longer, they told the tow truck driver to carry out his duty.

But Tamara, who doubles as a traditional ruler at Larteh, in the Eastern Region, under the stool name Nana Esi Koree, insisted on staying in the car while it was being towed.

Under the pretext of positioning the vehicle to facilitate the towing, Tamara got at the wheels and sped off, bulldozing her fenced wall.

The officers were left with no other option than to take away another car parked in the premises, a BMW with registration number DV 1211 DV 02 20 LA04

The police involvement in the execution of the court order was as a result of a request to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) by the judicial authorities to provide protection for bailiffs during such operations.

In the court suit, it was alleged that Lady Tamara extorted ¢30 million from the plaintiff under the pretext of securing for him an American visa and promised to refund the money on June 25, 2002 if she failed.

Not only did she fail to secure the visa, but also refused to refund the money, hence the court action.