Court directs lawyers in NACOB case to file correct application
The Human Rights Court, a division of the High Court, on Wednesday directed the lawyers of Abubakar Nallah, CEO of Tudu Mighty Jets Football Club and nine other officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) to file an appropriate bail application before it.
The court in its ruling said the application filed by the defence for the accused persons to be granted unconditional bail was wrong.
The defence team had filed an application for bail for the suspects at both the Circuit Court and the Human Rights Court because they claimed that the continuous detention of the suspects for the past eight weeks without trial was a violation of their human rights.
Abubakar Nallah aka Abu Sundoko and nine officials of NACOB are on trial for alleged narcotic related offences.
They are Fatimatu Abdulai, Dennis Adutwum Gyimah, Yakubu Issaka, Timothy Aboloimpo and Peter Ansong.
The rest are Mutawakilu Yahaya Iddi, Jerry John Kwesi Abbiw, Eric Darko Akuffo and Nana Zamsah Evrah.
The accused persons have pleaded not guilty to abetment in the importation and exportation of narcotic drugs.
Mr Justice Peter Derry, the trial judge said the defence application for the court to grant bail to the accused persons pending an appeal was wrong.
He said the appropriate motion that the defence should have filed was an application for bail pending trial instead of their earlier application for the suspects to be bailed pending appeal.
He said the case was still before the Circuit Court and it would be premature for the Human Rights Court to grant the reliefs sought by the defence when the case was not conclusive.
Facts of the case are that sometime in July this year, a suspected narcotic drug dealer, who has been on the wanted list in the US, was arrested at Dansoman in Accra, and during investigations text messages were allegedly received from Fatimatu on his cell phone.
The text messages revealed that Fatimatu of the Procurement Unit of NACOB had been aiding the suspected drug dealer and others to import and export narcotic drugs through the Kotoka International Airport.
Fatimatu was arrested and during interrogations admitted the offence, and mentioned some NACOB officials and personnel of other security agencies, including the accused persons, as accomplices who compromised their positions and allowed drug couriers safe passage after receiving various sums of money from them.
Source: GNA