NACOB, court in tango over bail for alleged drug baron, accomplice
The Narcotics Control Board (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.
Advertisement
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.
The court, presided over by Mr Justice J. K. Dorgu, granted Chief Eke and his accomplice, James Elike Chukwu, bail in the sum of GH¢200,000, with three sureties each.
The bail terms were that all the sureties should be Ghanaians who are gainfully employed and whose places of abode should be known to the police.
International drug agencies
The bail terms have 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.
Reacting to the court’s decision in Accra last Friday, Mr 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.
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”.
Organised crime
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.
He expressed concern over the erroneous scientific concept that the state was more powerful than the private sector, saying that trans-national organised crime could generate money on the black market which the state did not have.
He said drug business and money could be linked to terrorism, cyber crime, money laundering, human, arms and wild life trafficking, among other crimes.
Background
On February 13, 2013, the Daily Graphic carried a story about the seizure of 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.
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.
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.
The success of the operation was the result of co-operation among the security agencies in the country and their international partners.
In December 2012, NACOB, through its foreign counterparts, received intelligence that cargo said to contain a quantity of cosmetics was heading to the Tema Harbour from Bolivia and was suspected to contain some narcotic substances.
Surveillance mounted
On January 29, 2013, the said cargo, which was shipped in a 40-footer container marked MRK 257478-45 GI belonging to MAESRK Shipping Lines and consigned to De Consumables Lines Limited, docked at the Tema Harbour and officials of NACOB, who were on standby, immediately mounted surveillance on it.
After almost two weeks, a clearing agent arrived with the necessary documents to clear the goods and he was arrested to assist in investigations and the container was later traced to Elike Chukwu, who was arrested at his residence at Aplaku Junction, near Weija.
Upon interrogation, Elike Chukwu told NACOB officials that the real owner of the goods was Chief Eke.
It took NACOB over one week of controlled operation to lure Chief Eke back into the country for his arrest at the Accra Shopping Mall, where he had scheduled a meeting with Chukwu and the clearing agent.
He had in his possession four Nigerian passports with different names at the time of his arrest.