A Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Abiel Ashitey Armah, who is in charge of both the VVIP and the VIP Lounges at the Kotoka International Airport has been confirmed as the official who authorized the passage of the facility by caged Nayele Ametefe and her two supposed accomplices.
According to a briefing by Officials of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the VVIP Boss on that fateful day authorized two of his subordinates to allow Nayele and her friends, Nana Akua Amponsah and Sadalia Nuhu, access to the VIP lounge which shares a border with the Presidential Lounge.
The two subordinates, Theophilus Kissi of the Research Department attached to the VVIP Lounge at the KIA, and Abubakar Ahmed, a civil servant, have since been remanded in custody and are to reappear in court on December 11, 2014.
They were charged with abetment of crime.
According to the BNI, the two ladies had narrated to them that they used the Staff Entrance with the assistance of the arrested officials and waited for their flight at the VIP Lounge.
The two ladies were also said to have returned to Ghana immediately their friend Nayele, also known as Ruby Adu-Gyamfi, was arrested at the Heathrow International Airport by officials of Her Majesty's Border Agency for trying to smuggle 12.5 kilos of cocaine with a street value of more than 5 million dollars to the United Kingdom.
That came to light when Officers of the BNI took the suspects to the airport to re-enact their passage to the UK to aid the security authorities conduct their investigations.
In all, twelve persons are said to have been arrested in connection with the cocaine bust which has pitched both the ruling National Democratic Congress and the opposition New Patriotic Party at each other’s throat.
Other persons also arrested are Paa Kwesi Acquah, Mustapha Kilba, and Faisal Khadar, an American, and Abdulla Mustrah.
The rest are Mouiw Jaafar and Charbel Nasr, all Lebanese, and Mariotto Benard Young, an Indian.
The arrest of the nine people is part of the clampdown on drug trafficking by the security agencies in Ghana.
Their arrest brings to 12 the number of people arrested in connection with the case.
The other three persons, including an assistant Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Abiel Ashitey Armah, have already been picked up.