Yams were cut and stuffed with cocaine • NACOB tells court

Friday, March 12, 2010 (Page 3 Lead)

AN officer of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) yesterday told the Accra Fast Track High Court that he took both still and video pictures when a search was being conducted in the bag of Ibrahim Sima, the Chief Executive of the Exopa Modelling Agency.
According to the officer, during the search, three tubers of yam were found to have been cut and resealed after they had been stuffed with cocaine.
Mr Shadrach Bosomtwe, the Head of the NACOB Unit at the Cargo Section of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), said he had been instructed to take both video and still pictures during a search on Sima, who was arrested at the KIA on September 7, 2009.
Led by a Principal State Attorney, Mr George K. Ofori, to give his evidence-in-chief, the witness told the court that the accused person opened his baggage, which he had locked with a password, and it was during a search in it that cocaine was found stuck in the tubers of yam.
The witness said the accused person neither went through NACOB nor Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) formalities before checking in his baggage.
Mr Bosomtwe said a member of staff of the airline on which Sima was about to travel, his (Bosomtwe’s) superior officer and about five NACOB officials were present when Sima’s bag was being searched.
According to the witness, other persons present also took pictures of the search and during the tests on the substances found in the yam which tested positive for cocaine.
During cross-examination by Mr James Agalga, counsel for Sima, the witness denied an assertion that he had personally picked the accused person’s bags from the conveyer belts, searched them and dumped them on the floor, along with other bags.
Mr Bosomtwe also denied an assertion that he knew the accused person before his arrest on that fateful day.
The witness also told the court that one of the difficulties faced by NACOB officials was the failure by passengers to go through NACOB and CEPS checkpoints.
Sima, 39, was arrested at the KIA on September 7, 2009 after security officials had found three tubers of yam containing cocaine in his baggage while going through departure formalities for a trip to Germany.
He is currently on remand in prison custody.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of possessing narcotic drugs and attempting to export narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
The facts of the case are that Sima was arrested after NACOB officials had found that three out of four tubers of yam in his baggage had been cut open and re-sealed.
The three tubers of yam were found to contain cocaine, a narcotic drug.