A 24- year old pregnant woman, Rukaya Sarfo and two others, Beatrice Agbalenyo, 25, and Ellen Ama Egbi, 25, have been arraigned before an Accra Circuit court for allegedly possessing narcotics without lawful authority.
The Accused persons pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the offence.
The facts of the case as presented by the Prosecutor, DSP Mawunyo Nanegbe, are that, the Complainants are police officers from the Highway Patrol Department.
On 6th December, 2018, personnel from the above- named unit embarked on patrol duties on the Accra-Ho road.
At about 12:00am, the team stopped a Toyota Hiace minibus numbered VR 117- 17, with passengers on board at Akuse Junction, for routine check.
In the course of the search, the team retrieved a brown leather bag and two black backpacks.
The police demanded for their owners and Beatrice Agbelenyo (first Accused), claimed ownership of the brown leather bag, while Ellen Ama Egbi (second Accused) and Rukaya Sarfo (third Accused) claimed ownership of each of the two other black backpacks.
When the bags were opened in the presence of the Accused persons, the brown leather bag had six (6) compressed slabs and fourteen (14) pieces of polythene bags containing quantities of dried leaves suspected to be narcotic drug.
The first black backpack belonging to Ellen Ama Egbi, was found to contain eleven (11) compressed slabs and fourteen (14) pieces of polythene bags containing quantities of dried leaves suspected to be narcotic drug.
The second backpack belonging to Rukaya Sarfo was also found to contain ten (10) compressed slabs and eight (8) pieces of polythene bags containing quantities of dried leaves suspected to be narcotic drug.
The Accused persons on interrogation, told the police that the parcels were given to them by a man popularly called “Driver” in Ahado, a suburb of Hohoe, whom they can identify when seen, to be delivered to a recipient whose cell phone number was given to them, on getting to Accra.
In their respective caution statements to the police, the Accused persons denied knowledge of the exhibits.
According to the Prosecutor, the exhibits have been forwarded to the forensic laboratory for examination and report.
The first and second Accused persons were granted bail in the sum of GHC120,000 each , with two sureties for each of them, whilst the third Accused person was granted bail in the sum of GHC 100,000 with one surety.
The Accused persons have also been ordered by the Court to report to the CID Headquarters every Thursday, for two weeks until decided otherwise.
The prosecution has also been ordered by the Court to file all statements of prosecution witnesses and documents they intend to rely on.
The case has been adjourned to 30th January, 2019.
Source: GhanaJustice/F.Kyeremateng
