The Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) has dismissed report that President Akufo Addo has appointed former Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North, and drug trafficker Eric Amoateng as Board member of the NACOB.
There has been viral report on social media that the politician who was arrested in the US on 11th December 2005, tried and sentenced to jail for 10 years for trafficking heroine is now a member of the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB).
But the Public Relations Officer of NACOB, Nana Osei Nkwantabisa in an interview refuted the report and urged the general public to disregard the report and treat it with the contempt that it deserves.
“It is not true that the Hon. Eric Amoateng is a member of the NACOB Board, he’s no where near NACOB. As we speak NACOB has no standing board for which Hon. Amoateng could be a member.Since 2016 when the NACOB Board was dissolved, the erstwhile government appointed Commander Asase Gyimah as Board Chairman and Yaw Akrasi Sarpong as Executive Secretary. Upon assumption of power, President Akufo Addo appointed an old member of the board to supervise the restructuring of NACOB as well as a Bill before Cabinet, there hasn’t been anymore appointments for Eric Amoateng to be a board member. There’s only a Board Chairman not Board members.”
Any appointment made by the President to NACOB is made known to the Staff but as we speak there hasn’t been any formal circulation of memo to staff about Eric Amoateng’s appointment. The public must disregard the claims on Social media.
Arrest, jail and trial
News sources reported that Amoateng was arrested in the United States of America on November 12, 2005. He had travelled to the USA on an Emirates Airline flight to the John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) with a friend, Nii Okai Adjei. The trip was ostensibly to buy wrist watches for resale in Ghana with US$9,000 seized from Amoateng. Seven boxes of pottery which had landed at Newark Liberty International Airport from London, destined for JFK a day earlier were found to contain 136 pounds of heroin. The reported street value of the drugs was about US$6 million. Amoateng and Adjei were monitored by security personnel as they took delivery of the cargo and sent it to an American Self-Storage location on Staten Island. They were arrested the next day when they went to inspect the goods.] Amoateng apparently unsuccessfully claimed diplomatic immunity following his arrest. They were charged with “conspiracy with intent to distribute heroin”.
Eric Amoateng and Nii Okai Adjei initially pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to distribute narcotics when brought to court. Adjei later changed his plea to guilty. Following this, a second charge was brought against Amoateng. In August 2006, a third charge of “distributing a controlled narcotic substance of about a kilogram or more containing heroin” was brought against Amoateng.
On March 19, 2007, Amoateng changed his plea to guilty. He was sentenced on 12 December 2007 to 10 years in jail. He served his sentence at the Moshannon Valley Correctional Center in Pennsylvania, United States.
Fall out from arrest
Parliament
Following his arrest, there was a long debate as to whether Amoateng should still be held as the sitting MP for Nkoranza North. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Chief Whip, maintained that “until the case is disposed off he remains a suspect and that the allegation would have to be substantiated.” While the majority leader in parliament announced that the government will hold the fort for the MP, the opposition insisted that a by-election be held to replace him. This went on for more than ten months. One of his sons, Augustine Akwasi Amoateng, defended his father’s innocence in April, 2006.Amoateng eventually sent a letter of resignation around May 2006 to parliament but this was thrown out on procedural grounds. The Speaker of Parliament, Ebenezer Sekyi-Hughes, directed on January 30, 2007, that the question of Amoateng’s long absence from parliament be revisited. He however sent a resignation letter dated 4 February 2007 to the speaker of the Parliament of Ghana which was accepted.
By-elections were finally held on March 13, 2007, to replace Amoateng, 16 months after his arrest. The seat was won by a retired army major, Derek Oduro who was sworn in on March 21, 2007.
Investigations within Ghana
Investigations instituted within Ghana in order to possibly seize assets obtained through drugs appears to have fizzled out. The Narcotic Controls Board (NACOB) had identified assets of Amoateng’s accomplice, Nii Okai Adjei but were unable to pursue the assets of Amoateng possibly due to inteferance by officials of the NPP government. NACOB indicated its intention to reopen investigations when Amoateng returns to Ghana. He was arrested for questioning by NACOB on his arrival in Ghana on 7 August 2014 at the Kotoka International Airport. He was subsequently detained at the Nima Police Station for four days until he could satisfy conditions of bail set by an Accra Circuit Court.
Amoateng also faced trial for possessing fake travel documents on his return. His Ghanaian passport with number H2347080 which was issued in February 2009 while he was still in jail, was the same as that issued by the Ghanaian immigration authorities to a lady. He was however acquitted because although the prosecution was convinced the passport was fraudulently acquired, the High Court said the prosecution failed to prove that Amoateng was aware that his passport was forged. As at 2017, which is 12 years after his arrest and three years after his release from jail, NACOB state they are unable to confiscate his assets as they still do not have the details of his judgement from the United States.
