Cocaine Scandal: BNI, Suspects Re-enact Event At KIA

Five out of the nine suspects arrested in connection with the Ametefeh cocaine scandal were on Wednesday taken through a simulation exercise to help investigators understand how they managed to outwit security officials at the Kotoka International Airport. The suspects included Nana Akua Amponsah and Sadalia Nuhu who were said to have travelled with Ametefeh to the Heathrow Airport but returned to Ghana when they realised Ametefeh had been arrested. The others were Armah, Theophilus Kissi, a Foreign Affairs protocol officer, and Ahmed Abubakar, a middleman at the airport, otherwise known �goro boy�. The four other suspects were said to be in custody of the BNI. After the simulation exercise, the lead investigator, who would not give his name for security reasons, told reporters that the two ladies claimed they had used the VIP lounge and not the VVIP lounge of the airport, as earlier reported. According to the investigator, the ladies said on the day of their departure, they were helped by two officers of the foreign affairs protocol unit who had been instructed by the officer in charge of the VVIP and VIP Unit of KIA to assist them to access the VIP lounge. The exercise also revealed that they used an entrance reserved for staff of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Airport Security, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, NACOB and the BNI at the airport. It was also revealed after the exercise that the two ladies together with Ametefeh went through the normal travel check-in processes, as they had earlier checked in their suitcase and went to the VIP lounge with only their hand luggage which was scanned. They then went through the VIP baggage Arrival Hall and then to the VIP lounge where they waited before boarding the airline to the Heathrow Airport. The investigators also noted that the three women travelled out of the country on November 9, 2014, but data at the KIA showed that one of them returned on November 11, 2014. However, the investigators added that there is no record of how the other woman returned to Ghana. They added that the other suspects were arrested after they had been exposed by a CCTV footage which captured the entry of Ametefeh, Amponsah and Nuhu, accompanied by some officials of the Foreign Affairs protocol Unit, at the airport.