A case in which five persons, including a Ghanaian, are facing charges of possessing substances suspected to be cocaine, has been adjourned to January 7, next year by an Accra High court.

The court, presided over by Justices C.J. Hoenyenugah, an Appeal court judge, sitting as an additional High Court judge, Friday, postponed the hearing of the case because the holder of the keys to the exhibit room where the substances were kept has travelled. 

The substances were on the last adjourned date forwarded to the forensic laboratory for testing to aid the court in its final determination of the case.

The officer in-charge of the exhibit room is expected in town for the next hearing, when an analyst from the Standards Board Authority will appear before the court to test the substances.

The accused persons, Mila Ronald, captain of the ship, Perceval Curt, Samuel Mornty, Saint Praimchad, all Guyanese with their Ghanaian counterpart, Seth Grant, are currently on remand after they were arrested in Sekondi in the Western region on board a Guyanese ship containing 21 bags of substances suspected to be cocaine worth $50M (37M euros). 

They have pleaded guilty to charges of possessing narcotic drugs with the explanation that they could not afford the services of a lawyer to defend them in the case, when they were arraigned to stand trial before the court.

Meanwhile, the captain of the Ship, Mila Ronald, Saint Praimchad and Seth Grant gave reasons as to how the substance landed in their custody.

Joy News' Anny Osabutey reported Seth Grant as saying that when they took custody of the item wrapped in a brown paper, they examined it but suspected it contained grains.

The explanation from the accused persons, however, did not go down well with the court, Anny reported.

The accused persons were on board the ship, “ATIYAH, George-Town”, which was intercepted, following a tip-off from Ghana’s international security partners.

The ship was travelling from Guyana, when it was arrested and was escorted by Ghana Naval Ship, Yaa Asantewaa, to the Sekondi Naval Base.

The accused persons, together with the substances, were flown to Accra and handed over to the National Security and the Narcotics Control Board for investigations.