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Court threatens to set Alhaji Dawood, 5 others free

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The Accra Circuit Court trying the six persons accused of playing various roles in the Nayele Ametefeh cocaine haulage is threatening to strike out the case.

This was after state prosecutors asked for more time to conclude their investigations.

The state hurriedly arraigned some six persons including a Foreign Service Officer Abiel Ashietey Armah and businessman Alhaji Mohammed Alamid Dawood before court and charged them with aiding cocaine convict, Nayele Ametefeh to traffic 12kg of the narcotic substance to the UK.

All six have pled not guilty to the charges of abetting and aiding the commission of a crime.

They were granted bail last month after their lawyers insisted that their continued detention was unlawful and an abuse of their right.

Since then the case has suffered a number of adjournments.

Hearing into the substantive matter is therefore yet to commence as state prosecutors say they are yet to complete their investigations.

But the trial judge, Francis Obiri, is unimpressed.

Even though he would not accept the suggestion of defence attorneys to set a specific timeframe for the trial, the judge, warned prosecutors that he would be forced to strike out the case if they keep asking for time to conclude their investigations.

A UK Court has meanwhile sentenced Nayele Ametefeh to eight years, eight months' imprisonment for transporting 12kg of cocaine.

Mr Frank David, lawyer for Mr. Ashietey Armah, obviously unhappy with the turn of events, said he did not understand why "The principal person has been speedily convicted in the UK," and the prosecutors in Ghana are dithering.

He said it was particularly curious that Nayele Ametefeh did not mention any of the six suspects as an accomplice and yet the authorities in Ghana are holding them.

Hearing has been adjourned to February 24, 2015.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.