Captain Smart
Investigation is being finalised by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to have radio presenter Blessed Godsbrain Smart, aka Captain Smart, prosecuted over a GH¢25,000 extortion case.
A narration from the CID has indicated that Captain Smart allegedly collected an amount of GH¢25,000 from a certain lady with the promise of giving the money to Roads Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Atta as a gratification for his intervention in a case of trespassing on a state reserve land.
The said amount of money which two witnesses according to the police, attest to, was however, not given to the Roads Minister as Captain Smart alleged on the airwaves.
The investigation was triggered by an August 24, 2021 petition initiated by lawyers for the Roads and Highways Minister after his name was mentioned in a GH¢25,000 allegation of bribery and corruption.
During investigation however, it has been discovered that Captain Smart allegedly collected the said amount from a woman so he could intervene in a case of a reserved land at Achimota Mile 7, Accra, to enable her to possess same.
When detectives however, met the said lady identified as Gifty Twumasi whose interview on Net2 TV exposed the story, she indicated that she went through so much trouble over her attempt to extend her fence wall at her residence at Mile 7.
After twists and turns, she told the police that she received a call from taxi drivers who have been operating a taxi rank on the said land. Upon reaching the location, she said she saw the Roads Minister granting an interview to the media; the import of which was that the land under review was reserved and was not supposed to be encroached upon.
She gathered that the minister’s visit to the place was after Captain Smart had informed him about the issue over the piece of land.
The lady said she arranged with three taxi drivers Yaw Adu Rockson, Kwabena Anani and Fred Boamah to accompany her to go and thank Captain Smart.
She said she gave Captain Smart an amount of GH¢10,000 as an expression of gratitude for alerting the minister about the land which as she indicated earlier was being contested by another person.
The Chairman of the Achimota Mile 7 Taxi Drivers Association, Fred Boamah, corroborated the lady’s assertion on August 27, 2021.
Mr. Boamah reportedly told the police that a certain Robert Taylor came to sack them from the place where they were operating and he and his colleagues met with Captain Smart to go and see the Roads Minister.
In their presence, Captain Smart told the minister about the construction taking place on the said land.
When Captain Smart was invited by the CID on September 2, 2021, he confirmed that the taxi drivers did meet him for assistance and that the chairman of the taxi drivers association who was personally known to him and two others including Gifty Twumasi visited his residence to thank him. They gave him an envelope containing GH¢10,000.
He confirmed to the CID that he did not meet the minister when he visited his residence, and refuted the allegation that Fred Boamah and Gifty Twumasi when returning from the ministry sat in his car where he requested for monies to be given to the minister.
He said that out of the GH¢10,000 he collected, GH¢5,000 was for himself and the rest for his assistants.
He denied receivingGH¢25,000 from Gifty Twumasi in the company of the drivers to be given to the minister.
The police established that Captain Smart after collecting the GH¢10,000, said he was not successful in meeting the minister.
An attempt at seeing him in his office also failed, the CID narration again established.
Further investigation, the report went on, “established that after visiting the office of the Minster, the same taxi drivers and Gifty Twumasi for the second time visited the residence of suspect Captain Smart to hand over GH¢25,000 to him for the Minister which the suspect confirmed receipt but insisted the amount was GH¢10,000 not GH¢25,000. Two witnesses corroborated that suspect Captain Smart requested for the money to be given to the Minister and they were present when the amount of GH¢25,000 was handed over to the suspect.”
It has also been established that on January 2019, the minister visited the reserved land at Achimota Mile 7 due to the agitation by some taxi drivers concerning the private developer, and halted the developer from further works.
Suspect Captain Smart, the report went on “took an advantage and subsequently visited the offices of the Minister at the Ministries and Parliament House but could not meet the Minister in any of his visits. The suspect could not produce evidence to suggest that he had monetary dealings with the Minister as described in the recording of Net 2 TV and Oman FM.”
In the investigation, the CID observed it could not adduce evidence that Mr. Kwasi Amoako-Atta had knowledge of the money taken from the victim by suspect Captain Smart.
“Again, there is no evidence to suggest that suspect Captain Smart after extorting the GH¢25,000 from the victims gave same to Hon Kwasi Amoako-Atta.”
The CID document pointed out that “there is evidence against suspect Captain Smart for the offences of Defrauding by False Pretences and Accepting or Giving Bribe to Corrupt a Public Officer.”
By A.R. Gomda