Accra — An Accra Fast Track High court yesterday sentenced Kwabena Amaning a.k.a Tagor and Alhaji Issah Abass to 30years imprisonment. They are each slapped with a sentence of 15years in prison with hard labour to run concurrently from the time of their arrest. The court handed down the sentence after one year of trial.

Abass, 54 and Tagor, 34 were arrested with several others for their involvement in the missing 76 parcels of cocaine on board the vessel MV Benjamin. Their arrest came after a secret tape recording exposed a meeting they held at the residence of the now interdicted Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Kofi Boakye. After the Presiding judge, Justice Victor Jones Dotse handed down the sentence; the court room became a scene of mourning as relatives and sympathizers of the two, mostly women wept uncontrollably.

Tagor spotted a brown linen pair of shorts and a shirt and was in Plaster of Paris (POP) which bore the inscription 'Jesus is good' whiles Alhaji Issah Abass wore a pink linen shirt and a pair of black trousers to match. As they were being whisked away into a waiting van amidst tight security presence, Tagor who was in crutches hugged his wife and bid her goodbye. The two, described by the prosecution as self-confessed drug barons, were jointly charged for conspiracy and tried for drug-related offences. Tagor was additionally charged for carrying out prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs, buying and supplying of narcotic drugs while Abass was also charged with a similar offence; carrying out prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs and supplying narcotic drugs.

Tuesday, November 27 marked exactly one year since they were arraigned before the Fast Track High court after a nolle prosequi (unwilling to continue further) application was filed by prosecution at the circuit court but they were subsequently re-arrested. The court found each of them guilty on two counts of the criminal charges leveled against them and sentenced them to15 years on each of the counts to run concurrently beginning from August 2 2006, when they were first arrested. They were however acquitted on two other counts of buying and supplying narcotic drugs after the court realized that prosecution had not been able to establish any evidence against them in that regard.

The two have since the day of their arrest pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Tagor told the court when asked about his injury that he got injured during a football match at the prison where he is on remand. Delivering the over two hour judgment, Justice Dotse stated that he had taken into consideration the fact that sentence is meant to both correct and serve as a deterrent to the two persons and others. According to him, he also took into consideration the fact that narcotic drugs have become a menace to society, with Ghana becoming a drug designated region. The court noted in its ruling that the prosecution called 11 witnesses to support their case whilst one of the convicts Alhaji Issah Abass called four witnesses.

Whilst commenting on the evidences of each of the witnesses, the trial judge stated that the first prosecution witness, Kwabena Acheampong an ex-convict with drug related charges' evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that a meeting was held in the residence of Kofi Boakye's house of which the subject matter was the 76 missing parcels of cocaine and previous dealings in narcotic drugs.

He said the witness who was among the gang of five who met in the residence of the interdicted police officer in his evidence clarified that the use of the word 'goods' in the conversation meant cocaine as he admitted that the meeting talked about various dealings in cocaine. The trial judge however expressed his disappointment at the conduct of the detective Chief Inspector Justice Oppong, who was initially assigned to the case, describing his conduct of work as 'wishy-washy' since in the courts wisdom he did not do anything in his investigations to establish that the two dealt in cocaine.

The court therefore recommended that in future the police administration should investigate their officers well before cases of such nature are given to them to work on. That notwithstanding, the judge lauded Inspector Charles Adaba for doing a thorough job as an investigator for his ability to investigate jargons used by drug dealers and also helping to unravel the mystery surrounding the recordings of the said meeting including other hidden details of the accused persons.

The court also appreciated the assistance of Professors J.P French, Phillip Thomas Harrison and Kofi Agyekum for putting their expertise at the disposal of the court. On the defense, Justice Dotse dismissed the assertion made by Alhaji Abass in his evidence that their line of conversation at the infamous meeting was a bait to make Kofi Boakye talk. He said from a look at the contents of the recordings; he was not convinced that the actions were acted to tease Kofi Boakye. He held that the accused person and others at the meeting lost control and talked loosely to previous dealing in cocaine.

He noted further that if they were really baiting Kofi Boakye, they would not have said things that really were true. Based on the evidence before him, the judge said he found the accusation of two defense witnesses as mischievous since according to him, it was a deliberate attempt to discredit the work of Inspector Charles Adaba, the investigator. He said he was of the opinion that they decided to include him because he was strict on accused persons. The judge was however blunt when he touched on the involvement of ACP Kofi Boakye. He virtually expressed discomfort about how the Attorney Gerneral with all the powers on him failed to indict the police capo.

Before handing down the ruling, the judge commented on the addresses filed by prosecution and counsel for the accused persons. The court stated that it was impressed with the work of counsel for Alhaji Abass in filing his address as he did a well researched work by quoting extensively from the exhibits.

With counsel for Tagor, the court was of the view that they were in a hurry and did not check the details. For the prosecution, the court stated that it only made reference to lines when they should have brought the quotations out.