EOCO wants court order to dispose Sima's assets

May 20, 2011 (Page 3 lead)

THE Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has filed a motion on notice at the Accra Fast Track High Court, praying the court to give it the permission to confiscate and dispose of assets of Sima Ibrahim, Chief Executive Officer of Exopa Modelling Agency, who was jailed in March this year, for drug offences.
Sima was sentenced to 15 years on March 3, 2011, after he was found guilty on two counts of possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority and attempting to export narcotic drugs concealed in four tubers of yam.
The motion was expected to be moved yesterday but the court, presided over by Mr Justice Bright Mensah, directed the EOCO to furnish it with the record of proceedings of March 3, 2011.
Consequently, the motion is expected to be moved on June 21, 2011.
Earlier, counsel for Sima, Dr Dominic Ayine, raised a preliminary objection and said the EOCO should have come under PNDCL 328 and not Section 19 of the Civil Procedure Code as it had done.
However, the court drew counsel's attention to the fact that it was too early for counsel to be making such argument.
EOCO's action formed part of the Narcotics Control Board's (NACOB’s) plans to confiscate and sell assets of convicted drug dealers to the public.
With the Economic and Organised Crime Act, 2010 (Act 804) recently passed as its backbone, NACOB’s action is intended to prevent some individuals linked to convicted drug dealers from supporting those convicts while they serve their sentences.
The Daily Graphic issue of May 13, 2011 listed 24 properties belonging to Sima, including buildings, a number of vehicles, bank accounts, both local and foreign, cash in foreign and local currencies, digital cameras, laptops, as well as pistols and shotguns.
The properties include the EXOPA Modelling School, situated behind the Trade Fair Centre at La; a house numbered 1233 at Tema Community 10; shareholding and assets in the EXOPA Modelling School; a Range Rover, a Land Rover, a BMW and Opel vehicles, credit cards, as well as German, Belgian and Togolese passports.