Spanish resident convicted of drug smuggling

Two Nigerians have been convicted and sentenced to 21 years’ imprisonment in hard labour by an Accra Regional Tribunal presided over by Justice Frank Manu for possessing narcotic drugs.Mondistus Nidimakor had 11years jail term for each count of attempting to export and possessing 73 pellets of cocaine while Gabriel Alaoma received 10 years for each count of importing and possessing 4475.388g of heroine, a narcotic drug.
However, the sentences are to run concurrently. The convicts had initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but later changed their pleas to guilty.
The court ordered that properties including money taken from Nidimakor should be handed over to him and the exhibits should be destroyed.
Concerning Alaoma, the court observed that he had been on remand for the past four years therefore his sentence should take effect from the day he was arrested.
Also, the properties seized from the accused should be given back to him and the exhibits destroyed.
Prosecuting, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, a State Attorney, said Nidimakor, a resident of Spain, arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on January 16, 2006 to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam, Holland and that while going through departure formalities, he was arrested on suspicion of carrying narcotic drugs.
She revealed that the accused was taken to the 37 Military Hospital for X-ray examination and it revealed that he had foreign materials in his system.
As a result of that, he was put under observation till he expelled 73 pellets of a material suspected to be narcotic drug. The substance was confirmed to be cocaine with 959.462grams as net weight.Alaoma on the other hand arrived at the KIA on March 12, 2004 from Karachi, Pakistan enroute to Cote d’Ivoire.However, his movement at the transit lounge aroused the suspicion of the officers of the NACOB and so was picked for a search.She disclosed that when accused’s briefcase was thoroughly searched, the officers found four large parcels of powdery substance concealed in a false compartment and suspecting it to be a narcotic substance, the officials sent it to the Ghana Standards Board (GBS) for examination.The parcels were duly examined by the Forensic Department of GBS and their report indicated that the exhibit was heroin, a narcotic drug substance with an estimated weight of 4475-388gram.