Nayele’s suspected East Legon House
The head of the Town and Country Planning Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has been subpoenaed to testify in the case in which the state is seeking to confiscate assets purportedly belonging to Ruby Adu-Gyamfi aka Nayele Ametefe.
According to Samuel Mensah Ackron, lawyer for the assembly, the witness – Kwadwo Yeboah – who was expected to appear before the court on Tuesday, is out of town.
He told the Accra Financial and Economic Crimes Court that the witness would return in about three days’ time, indicating that AMA also only received the document to appear before the court just last Friday.
Mr Ackron urged the court, presided over by Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa, to adjourn the hearing until March 15 to enable the witness to be in attendance.
Witnesses
At the previous sitting, lawyers of the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) had told the court that the prosecution intended to subpoena its next witness to testify in the case.
Mr Yeboah would be the second witness in the case in which Adubofour, mother of Nayele Ametefe, is claiming ownership of the two storey buildings situated at East Legon and Dzorwulu in Accra, which has been confiscated by the state.
A Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) investigator (name withheld) who was the first witness of the state at the last sitting, told the court that the properties at East Legon and Dzorwulu are not the only properties belonging to Nayele Ametefe.
He said under cross-examination by Peter Dadzie, lawyer for Madam Adubofour, that NACOB had also pasted seizure notices and filed for confiscation of another property located at Pease in the Ashanti Region.
The NACOB investigator said the recommendation for the confiscation of the said property was based on “intelligence in relation to the stated property,” adding that verification from state institutions like the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and the Lands Commission confirmed his suspicion.
Although the witness said he had not obtained any evidence to buttress his claim, the investigator insisted he acted within the confines of the law.
In an answer to a question, the NACOB investigator argued that anything Nayele was associated with was under suspicion.
But Peter Dadzie disagreed, indicating that the suspicion was wrong and was not informed by any evidence.
In the view of the lawyer, the owner of the building at Dzorwulu which houses the Night Angels stores of Nayele, had filed for notice of claim and had produced land titles in the court, an assertion the witness said he was not aware of.
The witness said the seizure was for the stores and not the whole property.
Evidence
The NACOB investigator has over the weeks been telling the court among other things, that checks at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) did not name Adubofour as the owner of the two storey buildings situated at East Legon and Dzorwulu.
Led in evidence by Wendy Yeboah, lawyer at NACOB, the witness stated that after the arrest and subsequent conviction of Nayele Ametefe in London, UK, he was tasked to identify the assets of the convict.
He said he identified one property at East Legon and the other at Dzorwulu – which is a shop – adding that after that “I requested for the property rate from AMA.”
The NACOB undercover investigator indicated that he further requested from the AMA how names were placed on property rates and what goes into that.
The witness stated that AMA responded to the said request and got to know that Madam Adubofour had pasted seizure notices on the stated properties.
“Per the checks done at the AMA in relation to the property rate, Adubofour’s name is not listed as the owner of the property,” he disclosed.
Background
The state has filed a motion on notice for the confiscation of the purported illegal properties belonging to Nayele, who is currently serving a jail term for transporting 12.5kg of cocaine to Britain.
In Ghana, Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, the immediate-past Attorney General (AG), through Ms Penelope Ann Mammattha, a chief state attorney, filed nolle prosequi to drop the charges against six other suspects who were before an Accra circuit court, presided over by Francis Obiri, for their alleged complicity in the cocaine case.
The application, dated February 20, 2015 signed by the AG, stated, “Take notice that the state intends that the proceedings against the accused persons in the above-named case shall not continue.”
EOCO and NACOB have so far confiscated all items in the Night Angels Enterprise, located along the Dzorwulu highway and six Fidelity Bank accounts, including one containing GH¢3.22p.
But Adubofour is in court claiming that the two houses confiscated by the state as part of her daughter’s assets do not belong to her (daughter).
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
jeffdegraft44@yahoo.com