A private legal practitioner has stated that it is illegal for the \u00a0airport officials to have ordered the suspects in the cocaine saga to re-enact the process of \u00a0transporting the cocaine into the plane without their lawyers.<\/p>\n
The re-enactment exercise which was undertaken at the Kotaka International Airport (KIA) on Wednesday was to help the investigators understand how the suspects managed to travel out of the country with the 12.5 kilograms without detection.<\/p>\n
According to Lawyer Oppong, an illegality arises if the accused persons were asked to do so without the knowledge of their lawyers.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”L9e2gFg6HhafkdNDJwPUDIfS1mO1VS5q”]\u201cThey are supposed to have lawyers by now so it\u2019s within their right to refuse anything because that is why they will tell you that anything you say or do can be used against you in a trial. If they have their lawyers, they should be able to advise them\u2026that this one you are doing now amounts to confession,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
So far, 12 persons have been arrested<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in connection with the case and on Wednesday, five of the suspects were taken through the re-enactment exercise.<\/p>\n They included the two women who traveled with the woman at the center of the cocaine saga; Nana Akua Amponsah and Sadalia Nuhu.<\/p>\n The others were an Assistant Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Abiel Ashitey Armah, Theophilus Kissi of the Research Department attached to the VVIP Lounge at the Kotoka International Airport and Abubakar Ahmed, a middleman at the airport, otherwise known as \u2018goro boy\u2019.<\/p>\n KIA security to be downgraded<\/strong><\/p>\n Security Analyst, Dr. Kwesi Anning says Ghana\u2019s airport security will definitely be downgraded by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) following the Nayele Ametefe cocaine scandal.<\/p>\n According to him, the seeming standoff between the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and the UK High Commission in Ghana indicates there are serious security lapses at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).<\/p>\n \u201cThis reciprocal accusation between the High Commission and NACOB and the board chair [NACOB] certainly does not contribute to creating an impression or reassuring our international partners that they can do business with us,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n His concern comes on the back of revelations from the dismissed Board Chairman of NACOB, Baffour Assasie-Gyimah (Rtd) that his outfit raised red flags about the security lapses at the VVIP lounge at the KIA.<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Assasie-Gyimah (Rtd) mentioned that all efforts to get the relevant authorities to rectify the situation has yielded no results.<\/p>\n In an interview with Citi News<\/strong>, Dr. Aning bemoaned the fact that the once trusted Ghanaian airport will no longer be held in high esteem.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of the IATA rules, Ghana has been respected over time but the levels of security at the airport\u201d could damage the reputation of the KIA.<\/p>\n \u201cSo certainly, our partners will downgrade our security ranking or rating,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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