Cocaine trial: 'Weeping' Dawood denied bail

Alhaji Mohammed Alamid Dawood, the businessman who is alleged have aided Nayele Ametefeh to smuggle 12.5kgs of cocaine to the UK has been denied bail by an Accra Circuit court.

According to Starr News’ Wilberforce Asare, who was in court Thursday, lawyers for the suspect denied reports that their client was picked up by the BNI at the Kotoka International Airport upon his return from a business trip to Nigeria.

Asare reported that Alamid Dawood appeared “visibly worried and broke out in tears when his charges were read out to him.”

“He shook his head in disagreement with the charges that were leveled against him.” The case has been adjourned to December 8, 2014.

Dawood is alleged to have orchestrated the 12.5-kg cocaine haul by ensuring that Ametefeh escaped all security checks at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport.

His arrest brings to 13 the number of people picked up so far by the security agencies over the Nayele cocaine saga.

Three of those arrested have been charged with abetment of crime, exportation of narcotic drugs, contrary to sections 56 (c) and 1 (1) of the Narcotic Drugs (Control, Enforcement and Sanctions) Act, 1990 (PNDC law 236).

They include a deputy director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abiel Ashitey Armah, Ahmed Abubakar, Protocol Officer and Kissi Theophilus.

The others are Nana Akua Amponsah and Sadalia Sandra Nuhu, the women who had travelled with Ametefeh but believed to have abandoned their luggage and absconded from the Heathrow International Airport on realising that Ametefeh, alias Ruby Adu-Gyamfi, had been arrested by officials of Her Majesty's Border Agency.

The rest are Paa Kwesi Acquah, Sandra’s boyfriend; Mustapha Kilba, a cousin of Akua Amponsah, and Faisal Khadar, an American.

Ametefeh, who is currently in the custody of UK authorities, recently appeared before the Isleworth Crown Court in London where she pleaded guilty and demanded an early sentence. The Court, however, deferred sentencing to January 5, 2015.