A United Kingdom(UK) based group, Concerned Ghanaian Citizens has charged the Mahama-led administration to come clean on issues surrounding the arrest of Nayeli Ametefeh, the woman arrested with cocaine at the Heathrow airport.
The group believes this will help put to rest, what they consider to be inconsistencies in the information being churned out by government officials on the matter.
Speaking to Citi News, the spokesperson of the group, Yaw Sarpong said: “why is government trying to cover up for someone who has committed a very serious criminal offence?… the government has a very serious question to answer.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”O3NxOmOLwUijoDt7PzDK4iU6FjvOEdGh”]Ghana’s High Commission to the UK sent officials to visit the lady who is currently in police custody to ascertain her citizenship but Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK, Victor Smith has stated that the Commission is yet to discover her citizenship.
According to Mr. Smith, Ghana can only go to the aid of the lady if her nationality is identified.
Officials of the Ghana High Commission in the UK announced their decision to visit Nayeli Ametefeh on Tuesday after the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) revealed that the woman travelled from the Kotoka International Airport on an Austrian passport although she also had in her possession an ordinary Ghanaian passport.
Speaking in an interview with Citi News, Mr. Smith emphasized the need for the lady’s actual nationality to be unraveled.
“I sent two of my officers to go with the British Police and Board Agencies to visit the lady at the prison. I asked them to go and see the lady for themselves, to ascertain her citizenship as a Ghanaian and to examine any document that will be available for them to examine to ensure that we are all on the same page and that we are discussing a Ghanaian national who has been arrested with unwanted substances,” he said.
But Security Analyst, Dr. Kwesi Anning, has said that the government is putting the cart before the horse.
According to him, ascertaining the nationality of the lady is irrelevant.
“For me whether the person is a citizen or not is not the core issue. they successfully ferried out narcotics and it raises questions about first, how many kilograms came out of this country? Is it the first consignment that has been attempted to be taken out or there were some consignments that were taken out successfully or are there other consignments that need to be taken out…” he queried.
According to the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Nayeli Ametefeh “was arrested on the 10th of November, 2014 through the collaborative effort of the Board and its British partners.
Ms. Ametefeh flew first class using British Airways with a ticket she had purchased on October 8, 2014 but that had been altered three times.
NACOB further explained that “in her possession she had two (2) suitcases. Only one (1) of the suitcase was checked in (Buggage tag number BA 059801) and nothing of interest was found. In the other suitcase which was believed to be hand carried onto the plane, 10kgs of cocaine was found among her clothing. The cocaine were wrapped in kilo blocks. In her handbag, she had two (2) more kilo [blocks].”
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana