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High court convicts former NACOB boss for contempt
Akrasi Sarpong said NACOB’s challenge was that the judge, in using his discretion as required by law, should have considered the past record of the suspect, which is public knowledge.
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NACOB and the Accra High Court are on a collision course over bail terms granted to a Nigerian drug baron described by the security agencies as a kingpin in the narcotic drug business in West Africa.
The baron, Chief Sunny Ekechukwu Benjy Eke, who had been on remand at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons since 2013 for attempting to smuggle 281,604 grammes of liquid cocaine with a street value of more than $12.5 million into the country, was granted bail by the Accra High Court last Thursday, June 16, 2016.
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But Akrasi Sarpong was unsatisfied with the bail.
He said the terms for the bail were very unfortunate because Chief Eke was known to have jumped bail in Brazil.
He said NACOB’s challenge was that the judge, in using his discretion as required by law, should have considered the past record of the suspect, which is public knowledge.
READ ALSO: NACOB denies recruitment reports
He added that the fight against trans-national organised crime was not for the security agencies alone but the whole justice delivery system in the country.
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The court, presided over by Justice Charles Edward Ekow Baiden said NACOB boss' comment was meant to undermine the authority of the high court's decision adding that the comments are unacceptable.
Sarpong has been sentenced to sign a bond to be of good behaviour. He was also convicted to serve two months in prison with hard labour.
Background
On February 13, 2013, NACOB seized the largest quantity of cocaine in recent years at the Tema Harbour, estimated to be 200 kilogrammes, with a street value of $12 million.
The drug was concealed in a 40-footer container filled with 1,946 boxes of shampoo imported from Bolivia in South America to Ghana.
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The owner, Chief Eke, a 53-year-old Nigerian businessman, was arrested, together with another accomplice, James Elike Chukwu, 47, a second-hand clothes dealer in Accra.
READ MORE:EOCO recovers GHC2.4b in 2015
Chief Eke was described by international law enforcement agencies as a notorious drug baron who had been involved in several drug seizures in Brazil and Bolivia.
Akrasi Sarpong's tango with the High court
The bail terms angered top officials of NACOB, as its Executive Secretary, Mr Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, has described the terms as very unfortunate because Chief Eke is known to have jumped bail in Brazil and all the international drug agencies were hard on his tail but could not arrest him until he was arrested in Ghana.
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He said the fight against trans-national organised crime was not for the security agencies alone but the whole justice delivery system in the country.
He warned that if the suspect escaped, nobody should blame NACOB because the board would use meagre state resources or property to monitor the suspect as “he walks free on the streets of Accra, a situation which he could take advantage of to escape again”.
He said the plea of NACOB was that while the Judiciary upheld the 1992 Constitution and the rule of law, there was the need to understand that the characters involved in trans-national organised crime, such as suspect Chief Eke, could undermine democracy, promote impunity of the private sector against the public sector, engender corruption both in the public and the private sectors, as well as give cause for the rise of fake and wrong role models.
"For NACOB, the condition under which the accused was granted bail was not the best, judging from his past record of jumping bail. Besides, we are aware that the wheel of justice is a slow processs, but no matter how slow it is, justice is more likely to prevail than injustice," he said.
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