Court orders destruction of cocaine

Accra, July 31, GNA - An Accra Regional Tribunal on Tuesday ordered the destruction of 297.2489 grammes of cocaine, a narcotic drug, after it had convicted and sentenced its Nigerian owner to 11 years' imprisonment for attempting to export it to Spain.

At the tribunal's sitting on Tuesday, Frank Aquianne Chukwudi changed his plea from not guilty to guilty and was convicted and sentenced accordingly.

When Chukwudi first appeared before the tribunal on May 9, 2006, he pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempted exportation and possession of narcotic drugs.

But on his ni nth appearance on Tuesday, Chukwudi changed his plea to guilty.

On the convict's first appearance, the prosecution told the tribunal that in the evening of October 26, 2005, Chukwudi arrived at the Kotoka International Airport to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam in transit to Spain.

The prosecution said while convict was going through departure formalities, he was picked up by officials of the Narcotic Control Board on duty at the Airport on suspicion of carrying narcotic drugs. According to the prosecution, Chukwudi was escorted to the 37 Military Hospital where he refused to undergo an x-ray examination. The prosecution said the convict later confessed having inserted three thumb-sized pellets of cocaine in his anus and swallowed 32 others.

According to the prosecution, Chukwudi after expelling all 35 pellets under the supervision of personnel from the Narcotic Control Board told them that he was carrying the stuff for one Joseph Eze, a Nigerian in Accra, to be delivered to one Kaitama in Spain for a fee of 3,000 dollars.