On The MV Benjamin Cocaine Scandal

*KOFI BOAKYE’S*

*BOMBSHELL*

*…Insists “I Was Not Interdicted” *

*…Says Kufuor’s Gov’t Was Simply Uncomfortable With Him**

By Larry-Alans Dogbey*

The Head of Police Training School, ACP Kofi Boakye has dropped a massive bombshell in the matter of the MV Benjamin cocaine disappearance. He revealed that in spite of what was widely publicized, he was never interdicted by the Kufuor administration.

Mr. Boakye suggested that instead of the interdiction as told Ghanaians, the then government rather sent him home with what could best be described in the Police Service as a VVIP treatment.

* *

In a recorded conversation with a group of friends in London sometime last year, ACP Kofi Boakye alleged that the former regime was uncomfortable with him as Director of Police Operations, suggesting knowledge of certain things the Kufuor administration was engaged in, in parts of the country.

For fear of being exposed therefore, Kofi Boakye claims the former government rather gave him a juicy package even as he was supposed to be on interdiction.

The Herald’s checks reveal that interdicted officers are entitled to only half of their salaries and their movements restricted in some cases, until the interdiction is lifted.

But Kofi Boakye told his friends in London; …“The fact is that since two years ago, I have been in the service, I have been given my full pay, I use my bodyguards, I use my driver, they give me car, they give me new house. The only thing is that they don’t want me to come to work.”

* *

“Take it from me, I was not interdicted. Two years …since two years; they always gave me full pay, bodyguard, driver.….they don’t do any work apart from being with me, going to court with me, going to school with me when I was going to school.They gave me a new house exactly where the ministers stay; 4C. I don’t stay there anymore, I gave it to one of my boys. I stay in my own house,” the now head of Police Training school told his friends in London.(That house is now being occupied by the director of Town and Country Planning).

* *

“So the fact is that they realized that as Director General Operations, when I am there, they cannot be doing the kind things they did in Kumasi, what they did in Tamale…..So the only problem is that they didn’t want me to be in office but I’m in the service”.

* *

“I am not even on interdiction. Since two years ago, nobody has asked me anything on this Issah Tagor issue,” he told his audience during the interaction*.*

“The Herald” on Monday published a story about ACP Kofi Boakye having finally broken his silence on the disappearance of the 76 sacks of cocaine from the shipping vessel MV Benjamin and referred to Issa Abbas and Tagor as “known drug barons”.

ACP Boakye alleged the Kufuor-led government’s complicity in the scandal with a revelation that even though Issa Abass and Tagor who were sometime last year set free by the Court of Appeal of a charge of dealing in narcotic drugs,are known drug barons, they were good pals of the previous regime.

Mr. Boakye, who now heads the Police Training School at Tesano here in Accra, says Issa Abass in particular supplied police vehicles to the NPP-led government whilst Tagor was a very good friend of the administration.

ACP Kofi Boakye’s interdiction was nocturnally revoked by ex-President Kufuor on the eve of his exit from office but it took a lot of back and forth to get him back to wear the police uniform under the Mills administration.

Meanwhile, the Police administration has queried Kofi Boakye for divulging police covert and overt operations to the public through the mass media. This action follows his revelation on his role in the MV Benjamin cocaine scandal as published in The Herald of Monday April 19. This paper has also learnt that the board of inquiry probing ACP Boakye’s involvement in the MV Benjamin case has completed its work. It is however not clear whether the report has been submitted to the Police Council. The paper could also not confirm whether the report has exonerated or nailed Kofi Boakye. (More to come)