By Stephen Kwabena Effah
The Accra Fast Track High Court yesterday granted one more person in the 125-slab Tema cocaine case, GH 150,000-bail with two sureties with one of which must be justified.
Granting the bail to Edward Kojo Arhin a clering agent ysterday, Justice Mustapha Habib Logoh, the presiding judge, gave the Attorney General one week to justify the continuous detention of Anthony Wilson, one of the four accused persons in the case.
A seven-month old pregnant woman, Kyerewaa Twum-Barimah was the first person to be granted bail.
While Kyerewaa was granted bail on November 10, in view of her pregnancy, Arhin was granted bail yesterday because the court held that he is a clearing agent who was given a job to do.
The two other, Benjamin Armstrong, Chief Executive of Pharma Plus and Anthony Wilson, Operations Manager of the same company, are accused of placing the order for the petroleum additives in which the cocaine was found.
They have been remanded in police custody until November 30.
According to the judge he gave the order because, the facts presented so far by the prosecution led by Principal State Attorney, Evelyn Keelson, had not specified any direct role played by Wilson in the alleged importation of the cocaine which has a street value of GH 10 million.
The four accused persons are facing charges of conspiracy to import and importation of narcotic drugs without licence. But the four pleaded not guilty to the charges when they made their third appearance in court yesterday.
When the case was called, counsel for Armstrong and Wilson, Mr. Joe Debrah, moved a motion praying the court to discharge his clients because neither of them packaged the goods into the container nor had control over the shipping process.
He argued that the container was consigned to Consolidated Shipping Services (CSS) and not his clients, adding that all legal documents including the bill of laden named CSS as the consignee and the notifying party.
“By shipping law, it is the consignee which has control over the container,” Mr. Debrah contended, adding that technically the Agricultural Development Bank, which granted the letters of credit on the imports, is the owner of the goods until they have been paid for.
He said the container was never in their possession, and that it was Mearsk Shipping line and CSS which had control over the container, adding that even when the container arrived, the seal had been tampered with and the prosecution is aware of this.
Mr. Debrah also drew the court’s attention to what he termed unconstitutional incarceration of his clients before their arraignment on October 26, although they were arrested on October 18.
He averred that the period his clients spent in custody before being put before court was illegal and the court must accordingly discharge on that basis spect, or alternatively grant his clients bail.
He said they were ready to avail themselves for the trial if granted bail
According to Mr. Debrah: “Armstrong is a US citizen who came to this country to establish business to employ eight people for a better Ghana.”
Counsel for Kyerewaa and Arhin, Mr. Dubik Yakubu Mahama, on his part described his clients arrest as unreasonable, since they are just clearing agents and not the consignee of the container.
Opposing the motion, Mrs.Keelson said after placing the order, Armstrong went to the US to finalise the shipment processes while Wilson is the one in charge of the company’s operations.
She said it was Wilson who contracted and handed over the bill of laden and money to the clearing agents to clear the goods from the port.
She said that there were a number of issues to be investigated in view of the nature of the case, and she therefore urged the court not to grant the accused persons bail since they could interfere with investigations.
She said the accused persons were liable irrespective of the fact that they are clearing agents.
It is the prosecution’s case that Pharma Plus placed an order from US for fuel additives which arrived in the country on October 9, and contained the products as well as advertising T-Shirts and four travelling bags in which the cocaine was found.
According to the prosecution, when it was opened, 125 slabs of substances suspected to be cocaine were found in the bag, adding that an initial test proved positive. It has since been sent to the Ghana Standards Board for further test.
The prosecution said Kyerewaa and Arhin, who are the clearing agents, were the first persons to be present when the container was opened.
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