'Coke' don fumes @ journalists

Mr Mohammed Attah, the Counsel for Alhaji Issah Abass, who is being held with Kwabena Amaning, aka Tagor, for narcotic offences, has charged journalists covering the ongoing trial of the two at an Accra Fast Track High Court, to report proceedings fairly and accurately.

According to Alhaji Abass? lawyer, his client is presently being tried on his knowledge about the recordings of the infamous conversation at the residence of the interdicted Police Director of Operation, Mr Kofi Boakye.


Speaking to this paper moments after the case was adjourned to July 31 for further cross-examination of Abass, Mr Mohammed Attah, said the media is reporting the matter as if Alhaji Abass is still being queried about the missing 77 parcels of cocaine on board the MV Benjamin vessel.


He thus charged journalists to de-link his client from the missing cocaine and relate stories about him to the accurate proceedings of the Fast Track High where Alhaji Abass and Tagor are being tried.


During his cross-examination, Alhaji Abass told the Court that he was not a cocaine dealer and that ?If I dealt in drugs I would not have gone ahead to supply the Police with items.?


Abass, 54, Chief Executive Officer of Gazimbex Ghana Limited and Issadies Company, both in Tema, denied that he used his business as a frontline for the drug business.

Abass maintained that it was Mr Ben Ndego, interdicted Deputy Chief Executive of the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB), who asked him to record the meeting in ACP Kofi Boakye's house.


The accused said they were to make ACP Kofi Boakye to talk and he "really did talk".


Ahaji Abass, who told the court that he had been a driver's mate and stowaway, denied that Mr Ndego had told the Georgina Wood Committee that he did not know the source of the tape.


He said: "My Lord it is not true that Colonel Isaac Akuoku, Mr Ndego's boss did not know the source of the tape."


Abass debunked the prosecution's assertion that he was Mr Ndego's agent who allegedly sold narcotic drugs.

The accused said he was not aware that Mr. Ndego and Colonel Akuoku had been interdicted at the time he appeared before the Committee.


According to the accused, he could also not have told Detective Inspector Justice Nana Oppong, the initial investigator, that he (Abass) was the one who recorded the tape.


"I could not have done that because Inspector Oppong was ACP Kofi Boakye's subordinate."


Abass maintained that it was ACP Kofi Boakye who invited him to his house for the meeting.


He said his interaction with Tagor was part of "our plan", adding: "Mr Lord I have known Tagor since 2003 that he (Tagor) arrived in the country. We meet at parties, funerals, washing bays and night clubs?.