Nigerians Led Sohin Boss Into Drug Trade

�The Herald�s� investigations into the arrest of the owner of Sohin Security Check, the private security company which operated at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), over the importation of narcotic drugs, heroin continue to reveal some very interesting details. Officials of Solomon Adelaquaye�s company believed his Nigerian accomplices, Frank Muodum, 44, and Celestine Ofor Orjinweke, 53, lured an otherwise decent man into the nefarious drug trade, leading to his May 9, 2013, arrest in the American city of New York. A security commander of Solomon Adelaquaye�s security company, Lambert, who was almost drawn to tears, yesterday told �The Herald�s� undercover reporter that the American drug enforcement officers appeared to be after the Nigerian nationals and Pinedo-Rueda from Colombia, but used Solomon Adelaquaye as a conduit to infiltrate and smashed the drug syndicate. Lambert, personally confirmed knowing the Nigerians as resident here in Ghana, and friends of his boss who used to visit their Achimota office, adjacent to Wassa Hotel near Kingsby Hotel. The General Manger of the company, who only gave his name as Kingsley, said Sohin Security is embarrassed and currently on its kneels, awaiting the last straw from the National Security Council and the Ministry of Interior to break its back, by revoking its operating license. Already over 250 personnel who were at the KIA in Accra, have been laid off by the company. While others at the Tamale and Kumasi airports have also been sent home following the arrest of the owner of the company. Lambert insisted Mr. Adelaquaye�s was not carrying drugs at the day of his arrest; three days after traveling to the US. It was his boss� intension to handover Sohin to someone else and venture into real estate development upon his return from the US. As far as Lambert was concerned, Mr. Adelaquaye only traveled to America to procure some security gadgets to enhance its work, as his company which was setup some six years ago, was growing and needed these tools, including vehicles to work with, but not to transact narcotic business. The company has been providing security escort for some prominent people including Pastor T.B Joshua, whenever he is in Ghana, adding Sohin was recently present when the stampede occurred at the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) resulting in the death of some worshipers. �The Herald� last Wednesday reported that 48-year old, Solomon Adelaquaye who faces life sentence if convicted by the American court has no office at KIA but only pay regular visits to check on his men deployed there. It also came up that Sohin Security Check, till they were driven away from KIA, were not in-charge of the entire airport but an area described in aviation parlance as �Landside� which includes the sewage area, Central Stores, Car Parks, Banks and other areas not connected to the various terminals. �The Herald� also discovered that the �Airside� which includes main terminal, the departures halls leading to the takeoff of the aircraft is handled by another company called Aviation Security Company under the supervision of the Ghana Airport Company Limited headed by Ms. Doreen Owusu Fianko. It emerged further that Sohin Security Check, was not handpicked to protect the sewage area, Central Stores, Car Parks, banks and other areas but went through a competitive bidding process leading to their presence at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) since 2009. Solomon Adelaquaye�s Sohin Security Check had gone into the tender process with 11 security companies namely; Magnum Force, Highland Security Service Limited, Safeguard Security Company Limited, Yutis Security Service Limited, Venus Security Limited, Vizko Security Limited, Frats Squad Security Services, Panos Security Services Limited, GS Ghana Limited and Pro-Guard Service Limited. Solomon Adelaquaye�s company and 10 others were thoroughly vetted by the officials National Security Council and handed over to the Ghana Airports Company Limited for a continuation of the tender process which included Tender Evaluation by the Entity Tender Board, Central Tender Board and the Public Procurement out. The short-listing of the 11 private security companies ended the National Security Council�s involvement with the Sohin Security Check, said to have its offices administrative at Achimota in Accra. Prior to the engagement of Solomon Adelaquaye�s private company, Magnum Force had been put in-charge of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) and was shockingly said to be even policing the Golden Jubilee Lounge, meant for use by the President and other VVIPs instead state security officers. Magnum Force, however, failed to win the 2009 tender process when the Mills Administration took over the leadership of this country. Prior to contracting Sohin Security Check, Ghana under the Kufuor administration had experienced a huge increase in the amount of the Cocaine and other narcotic drugs being shipped from the Ghana, through the Kotoka International Airport (KIA). Others liked MV Benjamin 77 parcels of cocaine which were coming into the country with security agencies notified were left un-arrested. At Prampram near Tema residents saw cocaine being casted from fishing boats into waiting trucks, while in Western Region, parcels of cocaine were found at the beaches. These and other things including the arrest of NPP Member of Parliament for Nkroraza North, Eric Amoateng led to Ghana earning an unviable name Cocaine Coast in Africa under the Kufuor presidency. Ex-NPP National Youth Organizer yesterday on Metro TV, confirmed Magnum Force�s connection to the NPP by revealed that apart from the Kotoka International Airport, Magnum Force, had also protected some of the 17 NPP presidential aspirants who vied for the flagbearship slot in 2007, at Legon. Airport officials who know Solomon Adelaquaye, who hails from the southern part of the Volta Region, expressed shocked at his involvement in the Narcotic trade and subsequent arrests describing him as him as a very humble, submissive and unassuming man. According to US media reports, Solomon Adelaquaye, arranged to help a courier move a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the drug through the airport in Accra in exchange for $10,000, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors described Adelaquaye as �responsible for security� at the airport. At a meeting with Adelaquaye in his office at the airport in February 2012, the courier said the heroin was hidden in a laptop computer, according to the indictment. Adelaquaye is said to have given the computer to his associate while the courier gave Adelaquaye $6,000 in cash and agreed to pay him $4,000 later, according to prosecutors. The courier got the laptop back after passing through airport security, prosecutors said. In reality, the purported courier and a person posing as a buyer were working undercover for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and their meetings with Adelaquaye were recorded. Adelaquaye was arrested last month in New York and brought before a federal magistrate in Manhattan along with two Nigerian nationals. A fourth suspect was arrested in Colombia. �These alleged narco-traffickers assumed they had secured safe passage for their heroin from West Africa to the United States by paying off an airport insider, but unbeknownst to them, the people on the other side of their transaction were law enforcement insiders working for the DEA,� Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a June 3 statement. Sabrina Shroff, a lawyer with the Federal Defender�s office in New York who represented Adelaquaye in court, had no immediate comment on the case. Magnum Force, has in a telephone call, denied any connection to the late Vice President Aliu Mahama, the NPP and denied being involved in any dirty media campaign against the government as a payback for abrogating its contract at KIA. More to come�