Nayele coke saga: Dismissal of case proves Gov’t’s complicity – NPP

The main opposition New Patriotic Party says the Court’s acquittal and discharge of six suspects in the ‘Nayele cocaine’ saga gives further credence to Government’s complicity in the whole affair.

An Accra Circuit Court Tuesday freed all the six persons accused of aiding Nayele Ametefeh to traffic 12 kilogrammes of cocaine to the United Kingdom last year.

The judge, according to Starr News’ Wilberforce Asare, discharged the accused for want of prosecution. They include principal suspect Alhaji Dawood Mohammed, a businessman; two ladies Nana Akua Amponsah and Sadalia Nuhu; Foreign Ministry officer, Abiel Ashitey Armah; Theophilus Kissi a foreign service officer, and Ahmed Abubakr, a protocol officer at the VIP lounge.

In a statement issued by the NPP on Wednesday, signed by Communication Director Nana Akomea, the party said: “The Nayele Ametefeh cocaine saga has given rise to widespread belief in the complicity of the NDC government.”

Below is the rest of the statement:

The circumstances in this matter give credence to this widespread belief: Ms. Ametefeh’s transit through the VVIP lounge at Kotoka International Airport, her carrying of cocaine in her hand luggage through the VVIP lounge, the Diplomatic Car on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport that came to meet Ms Ametefeh’s flight, her arrest on the plane to prevent her from disembarking, the official cover-up attempts (NACOB’s false co-operation with British security, conflicting stories from various Ministers of State regarding Nayele’s use of the VVIP lounge, and conflicting stories on Alhaji Dawood’s arrest, etc, have all lent credence to the belief of government’s complicity.

In the aftermath of Ms. Ametefeh’s conviction in a London court, the government announced the arrest of 6 people accused of aiding and abetting Nayele. Government also made a show of seizing properties of Ms. Ametefeh in accordance with the law.

Nothing much seems to have come out of these trumpeted actions. The announcement of an action to confiscate Ms Ametefeh’s properties seems to have been just that – an announcement. The prosecution of those accused of being accomplices who aided and abetted Ms. Ametefeh suffered from several non-appearances in court by prosecution officials. Yesterday, 24th February, 2015, the prosecution has ended in a nolle prosequi (i.e official termination of the prosecution) lending even more credence to the suspicion that this trial was a mere “show trial”.

The questions still then remain: Who should be held responsible for Nayele Ametefeh travelling the VVIP lounge when she was not entitled, and how she carried 12.5kg of cocaine through the VVIP of the Kotoka International Airport, and who aided and abetted her?

This situation has deepened the already great suspicion of government’s complicity in this whole Ms. Ametefeh cocaine smuggling saga.

For a government that came into Office on the basis of an anti-narcotic campaign, the Ms. Ametefeh affair represents grave complicity and failure.