Kofi Boakye denies making statements about cocaine barons

The head of the Ghana Police Training School, ACP Kofi Boakye, has denied allegations that he had said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration kept close links with cocaine barons.

A recent edition of the Network Herald newspaper carried a publication suggesting ACP Kofi Boakye had told some friends of his in London that the NPP government fraternized with ex-cocaine convicts Alhaji Issa Abass and Tagor even though he knew the two as drug barons who should be busted.

The paper also reported that ACP Boakye had said that the rumpus that was triggered over his meetings with Issa Abass and Tagor was uncalled for as he did that with the ultimate aim of securing information to arrest the barons and their accomplices.

The former Director of Police Operations was interdicted after the disappearance of 76 parcels of cocaine from the MV Benjamin shipping vessel while Issa Abass and Tagor served prison sentences.

In reaction to the allegations, a former Deputy Attorney-General during the NPP era, Kwame Osei Prempeh, described Mr Boakye as a “dangerous policeman” and “dangerous for the state.”

Mr Boakye has dismissed the allegations against him and says the newspaper misrepresented him. He spoke off-air to the producer of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Kofi Ansah.

According to Mr Boakye, although he had conversations with his friends in London pertaining to the cocaine saga which dominated the headlines for months, he did not make statements as being suggested by the newspaper.

Asked whether he would act on the allegations against him, Mr Boakye said he has been speaking to his lawyers and would come public at the right time on the matter.

ACP Kofi Boakye was interdicted for several months after the Georgina Wood Committee which investigated the disappearance of the substances recommended his prosecution.

Ex-President Kufuor recommended the reinstatement of Mr Boakye a day before leaving office but upon assuming office, the Mills administration appointed the ex-Police Director of Operations as head of the Police Training School.

Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana