Fish, Oil Turn Wee

FOUR BIG baskets which many thought contained smoked fish, loaded in a 207 bus with registration number WR 2222X, travelling from Dzemeni in the Volta Region to Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, has turned out to be dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp. The Volta Police Command, upon a tip off, impounded the vehicle at Toh Kpalime and arrested Daniel Adzah, 42, the driver; Kofi Owusu, 52; and Benjamin Kudzo, the driver�s mate, who is 23 years. Also in the vehicle whose passengers were mostly market women, were three yellow gallons popularly known as �Kufour gallons�, which from a glance looked like cooking oil, but upon inspection by the Police, turned out to have also contained wee. None of the passengers however claimed ownership. To outwit the Police, the suspects dressed the baskets just like how the market women do when transporting fish, while the yellow gallons were cut from beneath and the leaves stuffed fully into them. The driver of the vehicle, Daniel Adzah, told the police that he was approached by Kofi Owusu, the second suspect, that his vehicle had developed some mechanical fault and so appealed to him to help transport the goods which he said belonged to some customers of his. Adzah claimed he therefore did not know the content of the goods till they were arrested by the police. He also claimed he did not know how much was charged for the goods he had carried in his vehicle. Narrating the incident to the media on Thursday, the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP David Ampah-Bennin, said the Police had a tip off that the Ashaiman-bound vehicle was carrying some dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp. The Police, he said, immediately mounted a barrier at Toh Kpalime and a few minutes later, the vehicle showed up with what they initially thought were baskets of fish. An inspection however confirmed the information the police received that they contained Indian hemp. DCOP Ampah-Bennin revealed that smugglers and drug peddlers were now using new modus operandi to outwit the Police as well as members of the general public, cautioning drivers to be sure of the goods they carry and report any suspicious characters to the Police. He reminded the public that his men were on high alert and would not spare anyone caught in dubious deals. He thanked members of the public who gave such vital information to the Police and called for more of such information to enable them flush out criminals in the Ghanaian society.