However, to avoid political backlash and international embarrassment, the NDC government hurriedly organised a simulation exercise, taking the suspected accomplices of Ruby to the crime scene in an attempt to make it appear as if they (suspects) had used the VIP lounge instead.
Even though the prosecution in the case of six people including two ladies—Sadala Nuhu and Nana Akua Amponsah—being tried in connection with the arrest of Nayele Ametefeh at Heathrow Airport in London on November 10, for carrying 12.5 kilogrammes of cocaine tried to amend the charge sheet, some of the defence lawyers still had VVIP on their copies as at Monday.
During the November 27, 2014 so-called simulation exercise, drama unfolded when an official of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) took the ladies to the exit of the VIP section of Ghana’s only international airport known as the staff gate.
In the process, one of the ladies protested that that was not the place they used while embarking on that fateful journey to London on November 9, but an airport staff immediately came in and claimed it was the same place and that the place had changed because there were some renovation works going on there.
After the exercise, an officer of the BNI briefed the media and sought to deny the claim that Ruby Adu-Gyamfi and her two ladies used the VVIP section, insisting that they used the VIP wing, even though the suspects were prevented from giving their own account during the exercise.
The suspects were specifically asked to simulate the processes they had followed to get on board the BA078 flight but upon seeing journalists, the two ladies in particular became apprehensive for fear of being captured by the cameras.
One of the defence counsel who wants to remain anonymous told DAILY GUIDE that his client confided in him that the three ladies indeed used the VVIP lounge and this has been corroborated by all the defence counsel.
During the hearing at the Accra Circuit Court presided over by Francis Obiri, the lawyers kept hammering on the fact that Ruby and her girls were assisted to pass through the VVIP section of the KIA.
Frank Davies, who represented Abiel Ashitey Armah, Foreign Service Officer in-charge of the VVIP lounge at KIA, said “He” (referring to his client) “had a call and one Alhaji Dawood requested that he had visitors who were accessing the VVIP lounge and that he should grant them the necessary courtesy,” he said.
Mohammed Attah, counsel for Ahmed Abubakar, another suspect in the case, said: “My client as a Protocol Officer was on duty to clear one Mr Duncan and that brought him there. He was then instructed by his superior to usher in some three ladies.”
He continued, “All that he did was to access the ladies into the VVIP …. The airline then took over. As for the security checks he was nowhere near them.”
Vincent Aikins, counsel for Theophilius Kissi, said his client was a ‘victim of circumstance’ because he was instructed by his superior to assist the ladies at the VVIP and did not even know them.
Kwabena Addo-Attuah, representing Alhaji Dawood Mohammed, said his client indeed aided Ruby to access the VVIP lounge at the KIA with a phone call.
It was only Ellison Owusu-Fordjuor, counsel for Ruby’s girls – Sadala Nuhu and Nana Akua Amponsah – who told the packed court that the charge sheet he was holding read VIP instead of VVIP.
There have been so many half truths peddled by government officials since Nayele Ametefeh’s cocaine scandal broke.
Even though government says the lady travelled on an Austrian passport from Accra, Ghanaian officials were the first to defend her, especially when the issue of diplomatic passport popped up.
An Austrian newspaper had published that Ruby, travelling as Nayele Ametefe, indeed travelled with Ghanaian diplomatic passport – a statement the Ghanaian officials had flatly rebutted.
There are strong suspicions that Nayele even used diplomatic passport.
When the trial judge of the Isleworth Crown Court in London, His Honour Judge Edmunds QC, asked the Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor, Ravinder John, whether Nayele Ametefeh carried diplomatic passport, he replied: “No comment!”
When Alhaji Dawood was arrested at the KIA on his arrival from Nigeria, information provided was that he was carrying five passports (two Nigerian, three Ghanaian) and that he was picked up by the BNI at the airport.
However, it later turned out that he had turned himself in voluntarily in the company of his lawyer, Addo Attuah.
Many wondered how Alhaji Dawood could reportedly be carrying three Ghanaian passports alongside two from Nigeria when data is now collected biometrically.
The immigration officer, who processed Alhaji Dawood when he arrived after being placed on a wanted list, was arrested but nothing had been heard about him just like the other people who were arrested alongside the two ladies who allegedly travelled with Ruby
Source: Ghanaweb.com
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