Amoateng Witness Out Of Town

The prosecuting officer in the trial of the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkoranza North, Eric Amoateng, who allegedly acquired a Ghanaian passport fraudulently, has told the court that the investigator in the case has gone out of the jurisdiction.

DSP Aidan Dery told the Accra Circuit Court presided over by Mrs Vivian Ellen Amoah that ASP kwaku Lodonu, the investigator, had gone out of town and that he would need at least ten days to enable him get the witness back to town to testify.

He consequently prayed the court to adjourn the case to enable him do so.

The trial judge reminded the prosecutor that she needed the medical reports she requested for at the last hearing when he and the witness failed to appear before her citing ill health.

Mrs Amoah at the last hearing stated that   “I am requiring the medical report of these alleged illnesses” after she was informed for the third time that the witness was unwell.

Amoateng was in court with his lawyer, Charles Puozuing.

The investigator said that Amoateng said he acquired the said passport while serving time in the US.

ASP Kwaku Lodonu stated that even though the former MP had told him that he downloaded a form on the internet during his incarceration for heroin related offences, investigations revealed that passport forms were not available on the net.

The prosecutor in the case also admitted that “nobody knows how the passport came to be in the possession of the accused person.”

The police officer said in the course of his investigations it was revealed that the said passport belonged to one Barbara Inkum.

According to him, Amoateng told him that a certain Ghanaian prison inmate called Mohammed helped him to acquire the said passport and that he and Mohammed were released together but that he did not know which way Mohammed went.

Barbara Inkum, owner of the passport said to have been used by the accused person to travel to Ghana from the United States, has also testified as well as Issaka Lan-Gani, Assistant Commissioner of Immigration at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).