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| No Witness For Tagor |
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| Posted on: 2007-Jan-31 GNA |
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Prosecution in the trial of Kwabena Amaning, aka Tagor and Alhaji Issah Abass failed to produce a witness at an Accra Fast-Track High Court yesterday, thus compelling the adjournment of the case.
The two are on trial for allegedly dealing in cocaine.
The Acting Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP), Ms Gertrude Aikins, and William Kpobi, Principal State Attorney, who were expected to produce a witness to enable the continuation of the trial, told the court that they were unable to get the witness who was supposed to testify in the case.
The presiding Judge, Justice Jones Dotse therefore adjourned the case to February 14, for further hearing while urging the prosecuting team to try and gather its witnesses to expedite the trial.
It would be recalled that the prosecution told the court last month that it had ten witnesses who were willing to testify in the case. So far five had been produced.
ACP Kofi Boakye, former police Director of Operations, was among those expected to testify for the prosecution.
Osafo Boabeng, counsel for Alhaji Issah told the court that his client had been ill for sometime now, but had not been given medical attention.
According to him, the last time Issah complained of illness, he was not attended to, so he had to invite his personal physician to attend to him in police custody.
He noted that his client was hypertensive and diabetic, and therefore prayed the court to instruct the investigators not to deny Issah access to medical care.
The trial Judge, in this view, asked the investigator, Detective Inspector Charles Adaba why the accused person had not been taken to hospital.
According to Inspector Adaba however, Issah had never complained of ailment since the last hearing date until yesterday morning when he complained that he was not feeling well because he had fallen on his way to the bathroom a few days earlier.
The investigator, Detective Sgt. R.N. Tetei, who brought Issah and Tagor, accordingly promised to take the accused person to the hospital when the Judge asked the investigators to ensure the accused persons received hospital treatment when they became ill.
Tagor has pleaded not guilty to four counts of conspiracy to commit crime, doing prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs, buying and selling narcotic drugs.
The accused persons were alleged to have said on tape at the house of the then Director-General of Operations of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Kofi Boakye that they had agreed to look for the 76 missing parcels of cocaine and share it because the booty was too much for one person to enjoy.
The loss of the 76 parcels of cocaine was the subject of investigation by the Georgina Wood committee set up by the President to seek the whereabouts of the missing parcels, as news about the cocaine, spread like wild fire in the underworld.
Alhaji Issah, on the other hand, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of doing prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs.
Tagor is being represented by a team of lawyers led by Ellis Owusu-Forjour, former BNI boss, with Nana Bediatuo Asante and Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko as the other members, while Issah has Osafo Boabeng as his counsel.
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