'Goodies' Jailed

By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Thursday, 27 November 2008.

Music producer, Isaac Abeiku Aidoo, popularly known as “Goodies,” and his wife, could not hold back their tears yesterday when an Accra Circuit Court handed him a 13-year jail term in hard labour for narcotic related offences.

Aidoo was sentenced to 13 years on each of the two counts of attempted exportation and possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority. The sentence which took retrospective effect from April 23, 2008, will run concurrently.

The “extempore judgment” by the judge Mr. Mahamadu Iddrissu, came shortly after Aidoo pleaded for leniency because “I did not know that the substance I swallowed was cocaine.”

“My lord, I’m not a drug dealer and I have never involved myself in any drug problem before. I don’t smoke and don’t drink. How on earth would I put myself in this situation,” he pleaded in a trembling voice and with bowed head.

“I have not even seen cocaine before. I am somebody I don’t involve myself in such things. I did not know what I was carrying in my stomach. I am very humble” Aidoo pointed out at the end of his defence.

His wife, who sat alone at the back of the court room dressed in a red pair of trousers and a red-and-white top could not control her emotions as she also broke down in tears.

Aidoo, who is the Chief Executive of Goodies Music Production was sneaked from the court cells by Prison officers to prevent waiting press photographers from taking shots of him.

Although in court Aidoo wore a white decorated T-shirt over a blue pair of trousers when he eventually emerged from the cells he was in a green shirt.

Before he was taken from the courtroom to the court cell, his armed escort warned journalists not to take pictures of Aidoo when he was brought out.

In his “unsworn defence” in court Aidoo said that he was surprised when officials of the Narcotic Board told him that the substance he expelled upon his arrest in April 23 was cocaine.

“I was surprised because I never knew it was cocaine. I am very sorry for putting myself in such a situation. I have three children and a wife that I love so much and I am sorry I have disappointed them,” he said.

He therefore pleaded with the court for leniency, saying “I am pleading with you to give me mercy”.

Throughout the 20 minute defence, Aidoo, who appeared remorseful could not speak up and occasionally looked in the direction of his wife and then wiped his face with his palms.

The judge urged him to “take heart and put yourself together”.
Aidoo, told the court that he lived in Ghana but also worked in London raising funds to support
Ghana’s delegation to the Beijing Olympics.

He said he was going for a meeting in London when a spiritualist friend of his in London, whom he named as William asked him to bring him “something whose contents he did not know.

According to Aidoo, William told him that the thing was for spiritual purposes and didn’t want people to see”. He said William offered to give him 3,000 pound sterling upon delivery of the substance.

He said he was so overwhelmed by the huge sum promised him that he did not bother to find out the nature of the substance and readily agreed to the deal.

He said that on April 23, when he got to the airport, the narcotic officials asked him to surrender his travelling documents since they suspected him of carrying drugs.

“I told them no and I suggested to them to take me for an X-ray because I knew I was not having drugs.”

He said he was then taken to the 37 Military Hospital for an X-ray after which he was told that he had foreign materials in his stomach to “which I replied yes, but it’s not narcotic drugs”.

He was then taken to the Narcotics Control Board office “where I expelled the suspected drugs”, later, the officials told him that the substances he expelled were found to be cocaine upon testing by the Ghana Standards Board.

Mr.William Kpobi, Chief State Attorney, who led the prosecution team yesterday, described Aidoo’s defence as “overwhelming” and reminded the judge of the minimum sentence under the law for narcotics.

Responding to the plea, Mr.Mahamadu said he was not going to give him the minimum sentence under the law, but “he’ll definitely get beyond 10 years. In the circumstances I’ll give him 13 years”.

He said that the accussed had opportunity at the initial stages of the trial to have pleaded guilty and asked for mitigation of sentence, but for dragging the issue on, there was no way he would give him the minimum sentence.

Mr. Mahamadu said that the sentence is to send a signal to all that narcotic drug deals would not be countenance, in the country regardless of the personality involved.

He advised lawyers to examine cases thoroughly and dispassionately before taking them, so that they would not take “unpalatable cases”.