Saga Of NPP Drug Dealer�Amoateng�s Assets Confiscated?

Narco- Ex-convict, Eric Amoateng, has recently become news item again, thanks to his due release on 30th July, from a 10-year jail term in the USA for heroin trafficking. As expected, a scoundrel media landscape in Ghana, which is largely pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) has attempted to stroll away from the monumental significance of the former Member of the Legislature�s completion of jail term for drugs. However, in the attempt to sweep the news under the carpet with a cold shoulder, one issue refuses to be silenced � as a jailed drug dealer, all assets of the former MP are supposed to be confiscated to the state. The criminal laws of this country demand this. Amoateng was arrested on December 11, 2005 for trafficking 136 pounds of heroin, valued at $5million to the United States. Since then, there has been a resounding public silence on what his assets are and whether the state has confiscated them in accordance with the law. In 2012, following huge public curiosity about the assets of the baron-MP, who was popular in his Nkoranza North Constituency for his �Father-Christmas ways� then Attorney General, Ben Kumbuor, confirmed media reports that the NDC government was in the process of confirming the ownership of 18 landed properties, including an FM Station, that were tied to the name of Eric Amoateng and his accomplice, Nii Okai Adjei. At the time, while the former Nkoranza North MP was still doing time in the CI Moshannon Valley Prison in the USA; Nii Adjei had been deported to Ghana after serving a reduced sentence in the US after he had entered a plea bargain with authorities there. The announcement by Mr. Ben Kumbuor of a process to confirm the Amoateng and Mr. Adjei had been heart-warming, since prior to the NDC coming into power in 2009; it is believed President Kufuor had used every trick in the book to ensure that Amoateng�s assets were not investigated into. In his Almighty capacity as President, he had allegedly thwarted a Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) investigation into the assets of Amoateng twice, even as the jailed MP continued to remain on government�s payroll under the regime. The investigations by NACOB had been indirectly halted by president Kufuor when he appointed a minister, who had been question by NACOB investigations in respect of the arrest of Amaoteng to head the Interior Ministry, which supervised NACOB. Before the investigations were halted, a NACOB report had already located the assets of Nii Okai Adjei, and had indicated that it intended to investigate the assets of Eric Amoateng. An initial report from NACOB had stated that: �So far, three residential properties have been identified to be belonging to Nii Okai Adjei. They are located in Teshie Nungua catchment area. Efforts are being made to travel to Nkoranza to conduct assets investigations on Eric Amoateng. After the identification and location, Narcotic Control Board intends to pursue the assets for confiscation in accordance with PNDC law 236.� By 2012, the assets of the drug dealing former MP and his accomplice had been updated to include a large walled parcel of land made up of four plots with one completed bungalow and a huge uncompleted two-storey building at Mandela, a suburb of Accra. Besides the property in Accra, 12 other properties and asserts said to belong to Amoateng had been identified in the Brong Ahafo Region. They included an agricultural company; FM radio station in which Amoateng was believe to be a shareholder, an unnamed heavy equipment company; a mansion at Breman, a suburb of Nkoranza, and a house at Anoma. Others included a guesthouse at Hansua in Techiman, an uncompleted guesthouse at Nkoranza, a commercial farm, a tomato factory and a water manufacturing company at Bonsu. Properties identified and said to belong to Nii Adjei at the time include a one-storey residential accommodation around the Nungua beach, another one-storey residential accommodation located at the Nungua Estates and one unit house off the main Nungua-Tema road. Dr. Benjamin Kumbour, as Attorney General in 2012, had said that Government had not rushed to confiscate the properties to the state because the government at the time wanted to make sure that the properties indeed belonged to the ex-convicts. Since then, nothing has been heard about the assets of Amoateng and his accomplice. Interestingly, Eric Amoateng, who was a chief of a town in the Brong Ahafo Region before his arrest in 2005, remains a local champion in his constituency, memorable for his ability to dash fat freebies.