<<Print>>

Counsel for the official in charge of the VVIP lounge at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has confirmed that his client was asked to grant Nayele Ametefeh,the lady involved in the 12.5 kilogram cocaine scandal, an easy passage. Frank Davies would however not tell if his client indeed yielded to the request and cleared Nayele to use the presidential lounge. But he told Joy FM�s Top Story Monday that his client Abiel Ashitey is only �a poor officer caught in the web of circumstances.� �He got a call and one Alhaji Dawood requested that he had visitors who are accessing the VVIP lounge and that he should grant them the necessary courtesy. Stretching the argument, one will say that he might have exercised some little bit of wrong discretion because those persons are not people who should access the VVIP lounge,� he admitted. Frank Davies is challenging the state to prove the guilt of Mr. Ashitey who is a deputy director at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. A Circuit Court in Accra today refused bail to Abiel Ashitey and others standing trial for aiding and abetting Nayele in trafficking the 12.5 kilograms of cocaine to the UK. Nayele was busted at the Heathrow airport last month and has pleaded guilty. Ashitey and the other suspects are to reappear in court on December 12 for the trial judge Francis Obiri to decide on their bail application. Frank Davies has insisted that his client never knew Nayele Ametefeh, stressing that the state has a weak case against his client. Abiel Ashitey is not responsible for profiling people neither is he a member of the airport security, Immigration or NACOB who are responsible for checking persons smuggling illegal substance, he argued. Prosecution must prove to the court that the accused person is guilty of the charge, he dared, �let�s see how they will scale it.� He is confident his client would be granted bail on December 12.