PHOTO: Woman with heroin arrested at Kotoka

• Posted on December 24, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

A Malawian has appeared before an Accra circuit court for allegedly importing quantities of heroin, a narcotic drug, into Ghana.

The accused, Grace Sauti Phiri, an Agricultural Gender Roles and Responsibility Officer (AGRESSO), was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) by operatives of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) last Monday, December 21.

According to the prosecution, Grace claimed ownership of the bag as well as the substance, insisting that she was contracted by one Samuel Onyeba Imo, a Nigerian, for $1,300.

The agricultural officer further stated that she was to deliver the said bag to one Val, another Nigerian residing in Ghana.

The plea of the accused – who has been charged with importation of narcotic drug without licence from the Ministry of Health and possessing narcotic drug without lawful authority – was not taken in a court presided over by Aboagye Tandoh.

The accused was remanded into the      Nsawam Prison until January 8, 2016.

Earlier, Paul Abagriga, lawyer for Grace Sauti Phiri, urged the court to grant bail to his client.

He said the court ought not to remand his client if the prosecution was sending the substance to the Food and Drugs Authority (DFA) for testing.

He stated that the substance could test negative.

The witnesses in the case are NACOB officers stationed at the KIA.

On December 21, at about 11:30 am Grace was accosted on suspicion when she disembarked from Ethiopian Airlines Flight Number ET921 from Malawi.

During interrogation, it was revealed that she was having a check-in luggage with log number ET 331006 which was recovered.

A search in the bag revealed quantities of white powdery substance which were  field-tested and proved to be heroine.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson