Exopa Modelling Agency CEO, Ibrahim Sima

Justice Charles Quist, an Accra Fast Track High Court Judge, yesterday ordered model and Chief Executive Officer of Exopa Modelling Agency, Ibrahim Sima, who has been accused of trying to export cocaine to Germany in two tubers of yam, to open his defence on July 8, 2010.

The order was made after the Chief State Attorney prosecuting the case, George Kwadwo Ofori, told the court that he had closed his case after Daniel Ofosu Boateng, an analyst at the Ghana Standards Board (GSB), finished giving evidence.

Mr. Boateng was the prosecution witness who put together the results of the alleged cocaine belonging to Sima. Earlier, when the judge ordered the state to produce the witness, Counsel for the accused, James Agalga, objected to the calling of the witness on the grounds that the state had every opportunity to call the witness but failed to do so.

Mr. Agalga stated that failure of the prosecution team to call the analyst inured to the benefit of the accused person, but the trial judge overruled Mr. Agalga’s objection and noted that the state can be said to have really closed its case only when the accused person opens his defence.

Mr. Boateng told the court in his evidence in chief led by Mr. Ofori that on September 7, 2009, the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) brought a brown cardboard box labeled the Republic Vs Ibrahim Sima and signed by the accused person, which contained four separately wrapped substances.

He said he labeled the substances A,B,C, and D, explaining that he first had to see to it that they were of the chemical; and after doing qualitative testing, he realised they were the same. According to him, he used chromatography, which is a separation method, to do the testing and analysis, adding that the test results proved positive for cocaine with a purity level of 72.3.

Under cross examination by Mr. Agalga, the analyst said he used the square root method in testing the cocaine and when asked why the results were put together even though the drugs were sent to him separately, he said that was how they did their job.

The witness denied allegations that he did not do his work well and stated that he followed all the processes required for testing the substance. Mr. James Agalga, on the last hearing date, wanted to cross-examine an investigator in the case, Mr. Sammy Annaqua, on the results of the cocaine test but was told by a State Attorney holding brief for George Kwadwo Ofori, the Chief State Attorney, that the investigator was not the right person since he did not write the report.

This made the judge to order the state to produce the officer who put together the result. Chief Inspector Andrea Kwadwo Sobor, the head of investigations Unit (NACOB), who also testified, told the court that Sima showed him the drawer in which the knife he used in cutting the yam to stuff in the narcotic substance was kept.

The witness said he got to know Sima when he was assigned to join a team of policemen and some colleagues led by DSP Akatsa, to go to the residence of the accused person at Tema Community 10 to see if they could gather some evidence.

According to him, when they got to Sima’s house, he showed them some super glue and a scrapper used in stuffing the yam. When asked of the whereabouts of the knife, Sima asked him to open the drawer and when he did, he found the knife.