Colonel Opoku took inventory of the cyber security equipment – Witness

The investigator in the National Communication Authority (NCA) trial said when he took over the matter, he found out the Colonel Michael Opoku, the National Security Director in charge of operations had retrieved the cyber security equipment from a warehouse on the Spintex road.

Detective Chief Inspector Michael Nkrumah who is on secondment to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) said after the retrieval the Colonel led him to the Emergency Centre of the National Security Secretariat to have a look at the equipment.

“I saw the equipment to be bulky and it had its own computers with accessories. Photographs were therefore taken and Colonel Opoku gave me a copy of the inventory he had taken.”

Chief Inspector Nkrumah was continuing with his evidence in chief at the trial in which Mr Eugene Baffoe Bonnie, former NCA Board Chairman and Mr William Tevie, former Director General, NCA, Nana Owusu Ensaw, Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, all NCA board members and a businessman, George Derrick Oppong, a director of Infralock Development Limited (IDL) are standing trial at an Accra High Court over a four-million-dollar cyber security surveillance equipment.

They are being held for conspiracy to cause financial loss to the state, wilfully causing financial loss to the state and conspiracy to steal.

All the accused persons have denied the charges and are currently on bail.

Continuing with his evidence, Chief Inspector Nkrumah, who was led by Mrs Yvonne Atakorah Obuobisa, the Director of Public Prosecutions, tendered the inventory to the court.

The sixth prosecution witness explained that the pictures of the equipment were taken by one Mohammed Kabral, a BNI photographer and he (Chief Inspector Nkrumah) endorsed them

The pictures were then tendered in evidence.

The witness said later Colonel Opoku led him to warehouse by name PBS on the Spintex road where he retrieved the cyber security equipment.

According to the witness when the equipment arrived in the country, the airways bill was addressed to the National Security Advisor and it was one Henry Kano, an Engineer at the National Security Office who escorted the equipment from the Kotoka International Airport to Baba Kamara’s private property and same was tested.

Chief Inspector Nkrumah said Kano told him that he escorted the machine under the instruction of Baffoe Bonnie and Tevie.

The investigator said he found out that it took between one and two hours for the equipment to be sent from Baba Kamara’s residence to the PBS warehouse.

According to the Witness the distance between Baba Kamara’s private property and the PBS warehouse was about 100 meters.

According to him when he interrogated Baba Kamara as to why the equipment was moved from his house to the PBS’s warehouse, Baba Kamara explained that early 2017, after the National Democratic Congress had handed over to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), he asked Alhaji Mimina to move the equipment from his property to the premises of the National Security Secretariat.

The witness said after taking over the case he took further caution and charged statements from the all the accused persons except Alhaji Mimina.

Hearing continues on Thursday February 28.

Source: GNA