EOCO's motion to confiscate Exopa's assets - Hearing adjourned

June 22, 2011 (Page 3 Lead)

THE hearing of the motion filed by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) at the Accra Fast Track High Court praying the court to give the office the permission to confiscate and dispose of assets of the Chief Executive Officer of the Exopa Modelling Agency, Sima Ibrahim, has been adjourned to July 15, 2011.
The adjournment was necessitated by the non-availability of the record of proceedings and the absence of the substantive prosecutor in the case.
At the court's hearing in Accra yesterday, a lawyer from the EOCO prayed the court to adjourn the case because the prosecutor, Mr Philip Addison, was out of the jurisdiction on a training programme.
The lawyer also informed the court that the record of proceedings in the case were also not ready.
Counsel, therefore, prayed for an adjournment.
The trial judge also stated that the court had also not received the record of proceedings.
Sima was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment on March 3, 2011 after he had been 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 EOCO motion was expected to be moved on May 19, 2011, 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.
Earlier, counsel for Sima, Dr Dominic Ayine, had raised a preliminary objection and said the EOCO should have gone to court 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 that argument.
The 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.
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, BMW and Opel vehicles, credit cards, as well as German, Belgian and Togolese passports.